Electrifying Currents: The Final Battle
by SephCurrentDaughterofPoseidon
Summary: The final installment! Seph and Skylar still have no recollection of what happened when Olympus fell, and now that everything is back to normal, the prophecy must be completed. With trouble coming at all ends from all eight of our favorite demigods, will Olympus ever be the same?
1. Why do we Care?

**SEPH:**

She looked at her alarm clock in her abnormally tidy cabin. It said June 4th in blinking red lights. Exactly one year since she figured out that she was a demigod daughter of Poseidon, with a prophecy resting on her shoulders. It was enough to make anyone feel incompetent, but with the people she spent her time around, it was enough to make her feel as though she was a walking failure.

Especially James.

James Tempest, he was maybe six foot two with blue eyes and messy jet black hair. His tall muscular frame coupled with his overbearingly arrogant attitude made him a very intimidating person. Not that the arrogance was unfounded. He was very talented at what he did... he could beat just about anybody in a sword fight, minus Percy, Annabeth, and Clarisse.

He was cold toward Seph. Not talking to her unless absolutely necessary, and whenever he would see her talking to some of her friends (specifically guys), he would stiffen up and walk away.

Skylar Rocaine was her best friend at camp and anywhere else. She was a sneaky and happy go lucky daughter of Hermes. She was one of James' best friends, and she loved to pull pranks. Everything about her screamed mischievous, which was the opposite of her boyfriend and Seph's archery teacher, Will Solace.

Will was a quiet boy with blue eyes, blonde hair, tanned skin, he was six foot, and had a lean muscular build. His smile was blinding, and he was the nicest guy that Seph knew. His temper was almost endless, but when you got to the end of it, he was quite scary. He had nothing on Zach, though.

Zachary Bruno, boyfriend of Seph's sister, McKenna was even quieter than Will, but that made him the opposite of McKenna, who was loud enough to give James a run for his money (that was saying a lot). Zach had black hair, and brown eyes. His build was muscular, but hidden by the baggy black clothes that he always sported. He was fairly tall, at five foot ten. When Zach got mad (which was an extremely rare occasion) things tended to die.

McKenna was rather tall as well, at five foot eight. Taller than Seph, anyways. She had medium length black hair, and bright green eyes. She was cheery most of the time, but her temper was a ticking time bomb. She got into frequent arguments with James, but their arguments weren't as explosive as his and Seph's were.

For some strange reason, she was thinking about her friends as she realized that she'd been training for one year straight. (Unless you count the Christmas holidays.) She sighed loudly as she saw it was seven A.M. and breakfast started in ten minutes. Rolling off of her bunk, she turned on the lights and yelled, "Come on, time to get up!"

She was answered with two pillows. She managed to dodge McKenna's coming from the top of her bunk beds, but Percy's managed to score right on her face. She stumbled backward for a moment before sighing. She knew what she had to do. "Okay, if you guys aren't out of bed in the next thirty seconds... I'm getting Annabeth."

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Percy got up so fast, his head hit the top bunk, and McKenna ungracefully rolled off of her bunk, hitting the floor with a thud.

"Ugh," she groaned, clambering to her feet. "The Hypnos cabin has carpet on their floors, why can't we? I fall off that bed at least once a week!"

Seph looked around smiling at her two siblings. Their cabin wasn't that bad. Sure, they had rock floors, and it was a bit drafty like the ocean, but it smelled like ocean spray, which was a soothing sent for her. It stopped her from blowing up on James on more than one occasion.

"Come on," Seph said, "we only have five minutes until breakfast starts!"

She was already dressed, so all there was left to do was wait. A few minutes later, they all stood in line, waiting for the food. She was standing with a partially away Skylar, a cheery Will, a dead on his feet Zach, and a grumpy McKenna. She instantly noticed James' absence. Every morning, he'd manage to come up with a different smart comment about how unnaturally cheerful she was in the mornings. Just when she was about to comment on it, he came walking up, muttering something to Jason, before splitting off with him and coming to stand beside the five of them, while Jason went to wait with Piper.

"Miss me?" he questioned, to no one in particular, crossing his arms over his chest as he stifled a yawn.

Everyone either snickered or muttered something under their breath, but Seph actually spoke directly to him. "Now why would I miss you, Tempest?"

He looked at her and blinked, before dryly saying, "I'm hurt."

Seph was struck with the feeling of Deja vu. She closed her eyes tightly and rubbed her temples as she tried to stop the dizzying feeling. She'd been getting the spells frequently since the end of her first quest.

She opened her eyes again to see everybody staring at her. "Something wrong?" Skylar questioned.

"No," Seph lied. "Not at all."

With a start, she realized that the line had moved, and they were up next with their food. "So," she asked quickly, so her friends would stop looking at her as though she just dropped from space, "what's on the agenda today?"

"Its Friday," McKenna replied. "We have archery with the Ares cabin first, then at ten we have racing, at one we have canuing, and... after that, early dinner at five, and Capture the Flag."

"Speaking of Capture the Flag," Seph said. "Might I inquire why I'm being kept in the dark about alliances? The only cabin that I know for a fact we're against is Ares."

McKenna smiled at Seph, who didn't miss the look of suspicion that James gave her sister.

Skylar managed a snort and said, "All I know is that its gonna be an interesting game."

They all parted ways and walked to their assigned tables, stopping to give an offering to the gods.

Seph sat down at the Poseidon table, and Percy and McKenna tried to pull her into a heated discussion of hippocampi vs. Horses. She didn't bite though, she just kept stealing glances at James, she seemed to get that feeling of deja vu around him more than anyone. She was internally debating whether or not to approach him about it. To demand to know if he knew something that she didn't.

She decided against it. Not in the already aggravated mood she was in. The last thing that she wanted was to start World War Three in the middle of camp, send someone to the infirmary (again) and be put on kitchen duty with James, only to get into another argument (again).

She quietly dug into her cereal and physically forced herself to look away from the son of Jupiter. After the first bite she found that she wasn't exactly hungry. Sighing quietly, she abruptly stood up, grabbed her tray, threw the contents away, and left the pavilion.

It was going to be a long day.

**JAMES:**

He subtly watched Seph as she left. What she'd said to him in the breakfast line, sent him into an instant spiral of swirling emotions not to mention unwelcome and painful memories.

It had been a year since Olympus had been reinstated. The Olympians had come to see them once since then, stating that a few of their future advisors needed a year or so of training before being instated in the position. The only person who knew for a fact that they had been chose was Will, not that he ever spoke about it. Ever since Skylar lost her memory, he was reluctant to be separated from her, and it was going to kill him if he left. No body knew anything about the job, they didn't know how permanent it was, or once they were up on Olympus if they would ever be able to come back.

Jason seemed to realize that James was watching Seph walk away because he sighed quietly and said, "I don't understand you, man."

James slowly turned and faced his blonde brother. "I'm a pretty simple guy," he replied, "what about me confuses you?"

"You're insane about her." James raised an eyebrow. "And yet you're pushing yourself further and further away from her. She can't stand behing around you because you're always being a jerk. You flipped out after losing her, almost jumped on Matt, who happens to be three years older than you and a lot bigger. You clearly miss her, why don't you try to get her back? Are you afraid?"

That's when James cut him off, by standing up abruptly. "I'm not afraid of anything! I don't want her back, I'm a hell of a lot happier without having to worry about her too. Besides, she's not my type."

Jason raised an inquisitive eyebrow at him. "Then please describe your type."

James opened his mouth to say, _Smart, independent, will tell me when I'm wrong, isn't intimidated by me._ He knew that he would be just proving Jason's point, so he just slammed it shut, and between clenched teeth, he managed to say, "I don't need to explain myself to you."

Jason leaned forward and confided, "I never thought that you went for ditzes."

James frowned at him before walking away and slammed his barely touched food in the trash, trying to relieve his pent up frustration. It wouldn't do him any good at the moment. He had activities to do, and since every child of the big three always compiled into one group, she and Jason would both be in all of his activities.

Seph. The name left a bitter taste on his tongue, as his mind thought back to the now nonexistent past. It wasn't Seph's fault that she didn't remember, that was all him. He couldn't save her, heck, he'd actually been the one to kill her! It tore him up inside as he thought of the three blissful months that he'd had with her. Despite the hell they'd been subjected to, it was some of the happiest times in his life. And as he remembered the hugs and kisses they'd shared, the nights they would sit out in the back and he would hold her... no he had to stop, but it was too late, reality of how much he missed everything came crashing down on him and he hauled off and punched the nearest tree, trying to relieve some of his despair. He didn't know if he was angry, upset, or sad... probably a mixture of the three.

He heard the electricity crackling off his skin as he stood there, his fist still touching the rough bark, his other hand was balled into a tight fist, and his anger was causing him to physically shake.

"James?" it was Seph's voice. She was talking softly and gently, something that he hadn't heard from her in at least a year. It caused involuntary shivers to shoot through his spine... and it wasn't the bad kind either. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Of all the people to find him, he didn't really want her to.

"What?" he asked sharply, hoping to get her to go away.

But of course, it didn't deter her. Just because he didn't turn to look at her didn't mean he couldn't hear her soft footsteps against the short grass. And when her hand came into contact with his shoulder, another tremor went through him.

"What's wrong?" she questioned.

He wanted to ask, "_Where to begin?_" but he didn't. He just stood there, wishing that she would remove her hand. Instead he asked another question, ignoring hers. "Why are you here?"

"You looked seriously upset." There were more footfalls until he saw her, leaning against the tree trunk with her arms crossed over her Camp t-shirt. With her hair pulled up so it didn't hide her face, he was able to see her whole smile. "And I don't think that tree did anything to you."

Immediately he straightened up, standing rigidly, he assessed her. "I'm fine," he replied harshly, turning around and he was just going to walk away, be done with it, and get on with his life, but she just had to say something else.

"I have a question," she said, sounding almost nervous.

"The all knowing Persephone Current has a question?" he asked dryly.

He turned around and saw that her cheeks had reddened slightly. "I'm not all knowing," she mumbled. "And it's just a question. No need to be an ass."

James raised an eyebrow. "What's your question, Current?"

"This morning. Is there a reason why I had a feeling of deja vu. I always have them when I talk to you." she informed him, crossing her arms over her chest, and shifting slightly under his harsh gaze, making it perfectly obvious that she was uncomfortable.

James regarded her for a moment. "I don't know," he lied. "Why would I know?"

"I don't know," she mumbled.

Then she froze as if she'd been struck. She frowned are him and leaned her head to the side. "You know, don't you?"

James was thanking Jupiter for his excellent poker face, because if not she would have been able to see the surprise on his face. He allowed himself to raise an eyebrow questioningly. "And what makes you say that?" James questioned.

"Every time we do... this," she gestured to them talking, "and I have that strange feeling, you always look at me as if you're remembering something."

Of course he said the first thing that came to his mouth. "Didn't know you paid so much attention to me, Current, I'm touched."

Seph's cheeks turned bright red and he allowed his triumphant smirk to come to his face. "I don't!" she snapped. "Gods, you're such an ass, why would I want to?"

"Well maybe if you weren't such a bossy sarcastic bitch, none of this would happen," he sent right back.

The look of hurt that was slapped on her face made him feel guilty. The words were biting. "I'm not bossy," she snapped. "That's you, Mr. The World Revolves Around Me! At least I care about my friends, you're so damned selfish, and I doubt you can see past your big ego to do anything!"

Snapping, James took a slow step toward her, coming well within her personal space, and she attempted to back up, only to be met with a tree. He placed a hand on either side of her head on the bark of the tree, and leaned closer until they were nose to nose. Looking straight into her mesmerizing green eyes, he growled dangerously, "One thing you don't ever call me is selfish. I have given up so much to this war that you wouldn't even begin to comprehend." He might have said more, but his voice started to break at the end.

He took one last look into her eyes, seeing curiosity and a feeling that almost looked like sympathy... toward who, exactly?

Immediately, he pushed himself away from the tree and took a step away from her, scowling harshly. He didn't want her damned sympathy, considering that she was the source of all his anguish. Well Oliver as well.

Oliver Evans was a psychotic son of Apollo. According to Matt Andrews, he wasn't in his right mind when they were on Olympus fighting for their lives. That didn't stop James from desprately wanting to commit murderer. He allowed himself to take a deep breath and calm down.

"James," Seph said softly. "Why do you treat people like this? Is it some kind of defence mechanism; are you purposely trying to push everyone away?"

He refused to look at her. He needed to walk away before he did something extremely stupid. He was on the verge of turning around when he felt her hand grasp onto his upper arm. He felt his mind fog up slightly and he gripped the wrist of the hand that was resting on his arm and pulled it off. He walked away from her. When he was at a far enough distance to avoid physical contact (by both people) be turned around and asked one simple question. "Why do you care?"

He only waited for a moment looking at her expectantly. When she remained silent, he just shrugged and turned around, walking back onto the sunny green grass, whistling a random tune, hopefully looking as though he didn't have a care in the world.

**CLAIRE:**

She wanted to bang her head against the Hermes cabin's table. She and Matt had been up almost the whole night before arguing. Oliver had been gone since the end of the Giant War, and the last place said son of Apollo had been spotted was in Mormo's lair. Matt had found a lead, which actually meant he had found a member of the opposing army, questioned him, and beat him within an inch of his life until the ex-mercenary found the answers satisfactory. That was one thing they'd argued about, Claire didn't approve of his methods.

Of course his smartass reply had been, "_It hasn't failed me yet."_

Another subject was the fact that he wanted to follow the lead. That was what worried her. Oliver wasn't the same boy, Claire knew that, but she also knew Matt. His fatal flaw was most likely loyalty, he wouldn't give up on Oliver, even if it killed him. '_Over my dead body,_' Claire thought with dry humor. The only thing that stopped her from shaking sense into Matt (if that was possible considering the size difference), was that Oliver truly wasn't in his right mind. Claire had been with Matt on his first interrogation, and the demigod had stuttered a response telling them that he had been brainwashed and tortured into submission. She'd seen Matt angry like that only once before. She wasn't agitated about the fact that he wanted to help his friend; heck Oliver was her friend too. What bothered her was that he wanted to go alone.

_"You're staying here. I know you'll be safe here."_

She rolled her eyes, the boy treated her like a frail China doll. She'd put her foot down, informing him that if he wanted her to stay behind, he was going to have to tie her up. She had noticed the corners of his lips twitching and quaver of his voice, making it obvious that he was trying to hide amusement, as he replied. _"Was I supposed to be opposed to that?"_

Oddly enough, she wasn't amused at all.

She'd stood up abruptly, informed him that he was a dimwit (not necessarily those exact words), and walked away from the warm and damp sand of the sound, straight to her cabin. She hadn't talked to him since, she hadn't been in any mood to talk to him. She did, however, spare him a glance as he sat at the Ares table talking to Mark.

She allowed her eyes to look over his profile. She knew thar standing up he was much taller, six foot at least, needless to say, he towered over her measly five foot five. He was built like his brothers, all those years of hard work as a mercenary had apparently paid off. His shaggy brown hair desperately needed a trim, but he refused to let anyone from the Aphrodite cabin near him with a blade thar wasn't a sword ("You could cut it," he had told her), and his deep brown eyes, which she couldn't see because he was sitting with his back to her, seemed to sparkle with warmth whenever she looked at them. It stunned her to think about him as the cold and calculating boy that she'd met two years previously.

She managed a half smile at the thought of how much he had changed since she'd met him as she turned away and looked at Skylar Rocaine, her sister, who was sitting right in front of her. "Why did you get back so late?" she questioned, smirking slightly.

Claire felt her cheeks heat up slightly at the obvious insinuation. "I was talking to Matt," she admitted.

Skylar smirked. "Talking," she said. "Really?"

"Yes, really," Claire sighed and decided to tell Skylar, maybe she would know what to do. "He's worried about Oliver. He's gotten a lead on his whereabouts, and he wants to check it out."

"I'm failing to see a problem," Skylar admitted. "Oliver's his best friend... aside from you that is," cue another blush from Claire, "and its perfectly normal for him to go after any leads to find him."

"I know that," she replied. "And I don't blame him. Oliver's my friend too. The problem is that he insists on going alone."

"Oh," Skylar said slowly, "I get it now. And I imagine you told him that you'd be damned if that happened."

"Pretty much," Claire said, rubbing her eyes. "I told him that he would have to tie me up."

"And what happened?" Skylar asked leaning forward, clearly interested, she could tell by the way that the light sparkled in her eyes.

Claire snorted, "He pretty much said challenge accepted."

"You have to admit that its cute how much he cares about you," Skylar said.

Claire let out a small laugh, "Don't let him hear you use that word. I think he has something against it. Besides, as adorable as it can be, its also a gigantic pain in the ass."

"I have to go with him, Skylar," Claire said suddenly serious, letting a note of desperation color her voice. "I know he's gonna try to sneak out at night without me. He did it one time before and I was worried sick... that was when he got his lead."

"Get Mark to watch out for him," Skylar shrugged. "I don't think he'd be opposed to it."

"I might just have to do that," she mused.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

After she finished her breakfast, she walked out of the pavilion, seeing James Tempest, son of Jupiter walked out of the forest, whistling a vaguely familiar tune. She stopped when she heard footsteps behind her, then a pair of arms wrapped around her. She couldn't help but smile as she was pulled into a warm chest and a chin rested on her shoulder.

"Can I help you?" she asked, trying and failing to sound stern.

She felt lips against her cheek. "Depends on what you wanted to help me with."

"I am clearly not a good influence on you," she murmured almost inaudibly.

He heard her though, she knew he did, because he started laughing and planted another kiss on her cheek. "Never thought you found me acting like this bad."

"I'm still mad at you," she said, crossing her arms over her orange t-shirt and stood there, not responding to the way he was rocking her from side to side.

"You know you can't resist me," he whispered in her ear, she could hear the grin in his voice.

"News to me," she muttered.

"It shouldn't be," he informed her not sounding upset about her mutterings in the least.

"People are starting to stare," she mumbled, seeing a few daughters of Aphrodite standing beside Piper McLean (who was facepalming) and jumping up and down, squealing.

"You think I care?" he questioned.

"You're the shy one, remember?" she informed him.

"Not around you," he whispered, pulling her even closer, "you're worth it."

"Sucking up isn't going to work," she said, noticing how terribly weak willed her voice sounded.

"You sure, thief?" he asked.

"Guess you're not sucking up, are you," Claire said.

"Oh I am," he replied. "You're my personal thief."

"Really?" she questioned. "I always thought I was my own thief."

"You stole something very precious from me," he replied.

Claire turned around and looked up at him questioningly. That was before he pulled her into an embrace. Her head leaned to the side of his chest, her ear pressed against it, listening to the steady sounds of his heart beating.

"You stole this," he whispered.

Claire felt her face heating up. "That's cheesy," she mumbled.

"Its the truth," he said confidently. "That and the fact that you saved it. If something were ever to happen to you, I don't know what I would do. You're way too important to me."

"Matt-"

He cut her off again. "Let me finish," he pleaded. "I'm not good with feelings, and I want you to know."

Claire placed a hand over his scar and leaned on her tiptoes, pressing her lips lightly against his. "Now what do you need to say?"

"I don't want it back," he said, "you brought it back to life... you made me care again. I don't know how, but I'm glad you did. And Claire if anything at all ever happened to you, I'd... I'd never be the same again. I'm literally depending on you. So when you want to go and willingly risk your life..." he trailed off.

Claire kissed him softly again, pulling him closer to her and whispered. "You'll protect me. I always feel safer around you."

"I'm glad," he murmured, his eyes still closed as he inhaled deeply. "But its still an unnecessary risk. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself. Besides, you're a magnet for trouble."

"You aren't much better," she snapped.

"Let's not do this again," he sighed. "I hate it when you're angry at me. It makes me feel as though I'm being guilt tripped."

Before Claire could reply, the horn rang telling them to go to their activities.

"Are you still mad at me?" he questioned.

Claire was silent for a moment. "I don't know," she sighed. "Maybe a bit irritated."

"I guess I'll have to take it," he sighed, running his hands through his hair.

Claire smiled and brushed some of the hair out of his face, "Get a haircut, then we'll talk."

"Anything for you," he replied. "See you in the sword arena."

Claire managed a half smile, "Alright. See you there."

**MATT:**

The first class he had was archery. He walked slowly there, admiring the plush green grass and the way that the sun seemed to be shining with the perfect amount of brightness, and the temperature was perfect. All in all, it was a beautiful day. It put him on guard. They were demigods, and nothing was that nice... ever.

He looked over and observed, with a feeling of wry humor, that they had a class with the Big Three cabins. He only had a problem with one of them. James Tempest. It wasn't that it was a problem, it was more of a disagreement. James hated Oliver Evans, his best friend, with every fiber of his being. Not that the son of Jupiter's feelings were unfounded. When Olympus had fallen, Oliver had done a number of unspeakably horrific crimes, and hurt James personally. The Roman son of the Sky god had to kill his own girlfriend. If that wasn't enough of a slap in the face, now Seph Current, his now former girlfriend, didn't remember a thing about him. Needless to say that he blames Oliver for all of his troubles. Matt wouldn't blame him, except that Oliver wasn't in control of what he did, he wasn't in his right mind.

He saw that James already looked agitated, probably had something to do with whatever caused him to storm out of the pavilion earlier that day. Shoving it all out of his mind, he sighed heavily and grabbed a bow from the supplies shack, and went to stand in front of a target... that was when everything got out of hand.

Percy and James were talking quietly about something. It must have been a heated discussion, because both of them had frowns on their faces and their fists balled up. James was shaking his head rapidly, while Percy crossed his arms over his chest, a clear indication that it was either his way or no way.

James finally sighed and nodded. That was when Samuel, his idiot brother approached Seph. A few days before, he'd been boasting about asking the daughter of Poseidon out, saying that he found her hot. Matt didn't see anything extraordinarily gorgeous about her, but then again, he never looked at anyone else other than Claire.

Matt had a slightly twisted sense of humor (he blamed Claire), and decided that he wanted to see this one close up. He shot the arrow that was in his hand, marveling at the fact that it actually hit the bail of hay. Wiping pretend sweat off his forehead, he quickly walked over to the table by where Seph was rummaging through the large cooler, searching for a bottle of cold water. He stood behind her and waited for her to find her drink. Before she found a satisfactory one, Samuel was behind her, and Matt found himself being pushed out of the way. If he hadn't been wanting to see what would unfold between his brother and Seph, he might have broken the prick's nose.

Seph finally stood up with a cold bottle of water (which actually looked good), and turned around, only to find that her personal bubble had been popped. She blinked and backed up in shock, only to stumble into the cooler. She fell to the ground with a thud. Matt was about to go and see if she was okay, but Percy and James zoomed past him. Percy held his hand out in an obvious gesture for her to take, but she just ignored it and jumped to her feet. "I'm fine, guys, gods! It isn't like I fell twenty feet. I only tripped." She immediately looked guilty for snapping, and said, "Sorry... really. Thanks for your concern."

You would think after his screw up, that Samuel would back off and try another day. Of course he didn't. Matt thought of him as the ultimate stereotypical son of Ares. He was big, he was strong, and he was stupid. He shot Seph a grin and winked at her, making a thick scar on his face stand out even more. (All Matt knew about that specific scar was that he wanted to find the guy that gave it to him and give him a fistbump.) Seph gave him a polite smile in return even if it was a weak one. Samuel seemed to take that as an invitation. He walked over to where Percy, Seph, and James were standing

Completely ignoring both boys, he gave Seph his best smile and said, "Hey, beautiful."

Seph flushed darkly and looked away from him, muttering a greeting that Matt was unable to hear from his distance. Percy was openly frowning at him while James had a neutral look on his face, he stared at the son of Ares with a raised eyebrow. He was clearly trying to pass for amused, but his fists were clenched tightly, proving otherwise.

Matt allowed himself to step closer as he listened. "So, I was wonder if you wanted to go out sometime. I know this spot on the sound that's always empty, and I'm pretty sure a daughter of Poseidon such as yourself would enjoy a good view."

He winked at her, as if the double meaning wasn't obvious enough. He saw James go from a neutral stance to a hostile and rigid one. Apparently figuring that he was better off away from them, he turned around, and put one foot forward to walk off, when Seph gave her answer.

"As nice as that sounds, I think Ima pass," she smiled sweetly at him and said with sincerity, "thank you."

James froze. So did Samuel. Both turned around and looked at the now uncomfortable Seph in shock. Samuel didn't take the rejection very well. "You've been here for a year," he snapped, "and you never go out with anyone! You never talk to anyone other than your group of misfit friends, and now I think I know why: you're too much of a stuck up bitch. You think that just because you're a daughter of Poseidon that you're better than everybody else!"

He was causing quite a scene. Most kids had given up trying to participate and stood around, favoring the prospect of watching Samuel embarrass Seph. Chiron, who was giving the lesson, finally trotted up frowning. "Now, Mr. Isaacs, that is quite enough!"

Samuel didn't get a chance to hurl anymore insults at her because James jumped on him maybe a quarter of a second after Chiron came to a halt. They went rolling on the ground, and most of the campers, like the mature young adults they were, screamed at them to keep fighting, cheering on who they favored. Matt, along with Seph and Percy just stood there too stunned to move for a moment, before the three of them jumped at the violently fighting boys.

James was on top of Samuel, and landed a blow to his nose, Matt could clearly hear the crunch as he ran. Blood began to pour onto his face, as Samuel kneed James in the ribs, clearly knocking the breath out of him. The second that it took him to recover was costly. Samuel elbowed James in the same spot, making him wince slightly. The son of Jupiter had a murderous look in his eyes as he jumped forward again. He grabbed Samuel by the throat and caused the both of them to slam back into the dirt. Electricity sparked off of every part of James' body as he visibly put more force into his grip. Samuel weakly tried to pull on his wrists and get him away. Matt was behind James along with Percy and Seph trying to pry him off of his brother, who's face was turning blue.

James shook them off and growled at Samuel, "You leave her alone, damn it. Don't you ever talk to her that way again if you value your life!" They managed to tare James away from Samuel, who curled into a ball coughing as he tried to get oxygen into his lungs. Percy and Seph were questioning him, asking if he was okay or not. He assured both of them that he was. Matt, on the other hand was watching his brother. Samuel jumped to his feet and dove after James, who had his back turned. Cursing loudly, Matt jumped in front of the other son of Ares, tackling him. He felt an unexpected pain in his jaw as Samuel's fist made contact. His head snapped painfully to the side and the momentum of the hit, caused him to sway sideways. Feeling completely pissed off, and completely merciless, he punched Samuel in his already broken nose, and then one time in the jaw for good measure.

"Coward," Matt spat at him before getting to his feet, rubbing his sore jaw.

He stumbled over to the others, and saw that they were all looking at him. Matt shrugged and said, "I don't like cowards."

"Thanks," James said after a minute. "I owe you one."

Seph on the other hand looked as though her feelings were crossed between worried and murderous.

"You both need to get those hits checked out," Percy said. "I've done hand to hand with Sam, he'll break bones."

Both guys nodded.

"See what you did James," Seph said, her eyes filled with confusion. "I appreciate the though, but honestly, I can take care of myself! I don't need you beating anyone up for me, look at all of the trouble it's caused."

She sounded as though she wasn't trying to sound ungrateful, but it certainly didn't come off as that.

James just stared at her mutely, brushing the dirt off his purple shirt, wincing as he accidently brushed across his ribs. Seph must have seen him wince, because she brushed his hand aside and pulled up his shirt, showing off forming bruises. James scowled as he pushed his shirt back down, covering the marks. "Jeez, Current!" he protested, sounding flustered and irritable. A pink tint rose to his cheeks

Seph frowned slightly. "James... you're hurt."

James just backed away from her, scowling, and muttering inaudible words under his breath. He spread his arms up in the air and asked so that everyone could hear, "Why do you care?"

**Hey my awesome readers, after deciding that I perfer chapters this long, my friends/critics/betas i-paint-my-dreams, MckennaSuaveDaughterofPoseidon, and SkylarRocaineDaughterofHermes have been forced to read this, and have deemed it fit to be put up.**

**I am putting this up to show my dedication, I'm in the hospital and had surgery yesterday. And right now under the influence of pain meds so I'm a bit loopy. This is a two way street. If I have dedicated readers and reviewers, I'll make damn sure I'm a dedicated author.**


	2. Capture the Flag

**SEPH:**

To say that Seph felt terrible was an understatement. She looked at James as he was storming away. Electricity still crackled to life on his skin, and she saw that his hair was sticking straight out. As much as she wanted to run after him and assure him that she was thankful for him standing up for her (as strange as the action was), she knew that he was too unstable at the moment. The only thing that would come out of that, would be either another argument, or he'd accidently electrocute her. Silence consumed the entire group at the archery fields, until Chiron broke it.

"Samuel, one month on kitchen duty, starting tonight," the centaur said sharply. "Matthew... you really didn't do anything wrong. Whoever sees James next, please inform him that he has one week on kitchen duty, starting tonight."

"Come on, Chiron," Percy protested. "It wasn't his fault! If Issacs wouldn't have started insulting his friend, none of this would have happened."

"Chiron," Seph said quietly. "I can't let him get in trouble. Give the week to me."

Chiron looked at Seph and Percy sharply. "I'll talk to the three of you after activities. Inform Mr. Tempest that he is to join you."

Before anyone could say anything else, the conch horn sounded again, and class was dismissed. Seph walked out swearing under her breath in rapid Greek. She saw that Matt Andrews was walking beside her, and she found herself blurting out a question. "Matt, you used to be as moody as James, right?"

Matt raised an eyebrow at her and managed a slight grin. "I guess so. Why?"

"I feel terrible," she explained. "And I want to talk to him, but I don't know if I should."

"I'm not a son of Jupiter," Matt sighed. "If someone was around that I cared about and I was angry, all I had to do was punch a wall or a tree. With James... he doesn't have control over the electric currents crackling on his body. I would give him some time to cool down if I were you."

Seph nodded. "Thanks."

Matt managed another smile and said, "You're welcome."

**SKYLAR:**

She brushed her dirty blonde hair out of her blue eyes as she faced down with Mark Edwards, son of Ares. He'd managed to disarm her and place a sword to her throat within five minutes of the fight. As terrible as that sounded, she honestly didn't care. She was tired, she was sweaty, and she was ready to take a nap. She'd managed to survive two conflicts with the gods, and was in the middle of a new one. It was common sense to know that she had the ability to take care of herself just fine.

She looked around at the old and worn seats, then at the mostly beheaded training dummies... great gods above, she wanted a change of scenery for a few days.

As soon as the thought ran through her head, she heard the telltale _clip clop_ of Chiron's hooves. Spinning around, she saw that he was standing right behind her. Normally that only happened if she'd done something that was, in hindsight, incredibly stupid and was about to be punished for it.

"I didn't do it!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air.

She didn't realize that she'd spoken so loudly. The whole sword arena had gotten quiet, and everybody was watching her and Chiron with interest.

"Didn't do what?" Chiron questioned, confusedly.

Skylar felt her cheeks flush from embarrassment, and she adverted her gaze to the ground. "N-nothing!"

"We've been informed by Lady Demeter that a son of hers is being held in an old hotel," Chiron looked at Skylar gravely. "Some of the Tyrants have him. And it seems to be a trap."

"If the boy was dumb enough to get himself caught," Skylar said with a raised eyebrow, "I don't know what I can do for him."

"Skylar, he might be seven at the most," Chiron said quietly.

Immediately her train of thought ended. "You're not serious," Skylar sighed.

"I wish I wasn't," Chiron replied.

An image of a seven year old kid alone and terrified as Tyrants stood guard over him flashed in her head, her resolve immediately crumbled. "I'll go." she immediately volunteered. "Where and when?"

Chiron smiled at her, and Skylar looked up at him expectantly, ignoring the sounds of the duels that had started again.

"Tomorrow morning," Chiron replied. Another knowing smile played at the corners of his mouth as he said, "I imagine that you would like Mr. Solace to accompany you."

Skylar smiled back and nodded. "I would like that."

"Come, child," Chiron said. "Lets go and find Mr. Solace, I'll give you the details in my office."

Skylar nodded mutely and walked with Chiron.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Maybe ten minutes later the three of them were sitting in Chiron's office. Skylar and Will were sitting on the brown plush chair in front of Chiron's desk, while Chiron sat in his wheelchair facing them. Already feeling distracted and slightly jumpy from the upcoming trip, she allowed her eyes to roam over the pictures, smiling as she saw one of her, Will, and Andrea after they got back from the quest. They looked awful.

She was brought out of her ADHD moment by Will waving a hand in front of her face. She felt heat rising to her cheeks yet again from embarrassment. She grinned sheepishly at Chiron, who was looking at her with a raises eyebrow. "Now that I have your attention," Chiron said slowly, "the boy, Avery, is being held at Terra Hotel."

"Avery?" Will questioned. "Son of Demeter?"

Chiron nodded.

Skylar blinked uncomprehendingly. "Where?"

"In Lower Manhattan," he assured. "It was shut down twenty years ago because a twenty man slaughter carried out by half-mad demigods."

Skylar grimaced. "This should be fun."

"I'll have Argus drive you there," Chiron assured. "This isn't really a quest, but you will have to find your own way back."

"That's fine," Will shrugged, running a hand through his thick blonde hair, "Skylar's fantastic at stealing- I mean finding rides."

Skylar and Chiron both looked at him strangely, but Will didn't seemed to be bothered by it. He just smiled easily and said. "If that's all, I have a class to teach!"

Chiron nodded and slowly wheeled himself toward them. "I wish you both the best of luck."

Skylar flashed him an award winning smile and grabbed Will's hand, intertwining their fingers before dragging him off. When they made it outside, Will pecked Skylar on the lips and murmured, "See you during lunch."

Skylar nodded and smiled, "See you then."

Before either of them could move a muscle, the conch horn sounded. Skylar smiled as Will pulled her against him and they both started walking toward the pavilion. She could already see the line getting long as they stopped at the back. "Will," Skylar sighed. "Why did you sound as though you know Avery?"

"Because I do." Will replied. "It has to do with what I swore on the River Styx I'm not allowed to tell you."

Skylar wanted to scream in exasperation. All over the camp she hears bits and pieces of some epic battle for Olympus. Apparently she wasn't there, because she didn't know a thing about it, because none of the battles in the Titan War were fought on Olympus itself. Will apparently knew what she was talking about, as did James, Zach, and McKenna. It was as though she and Seph were outsiders to an inside joke.

She scowled and looked around, trying not to get impatient. It wasn't his fault, it was the gods. And most times when the gods did something it was for a good reason. Silence was pretty tense between them as they waited. Will obviously realized that she was agitated because he left her alone to her thoughts, but he started shifting almost nervously, as if he was expecting her to go on a rampage. She humorously wondered if it had to do with the daughter of Aphrodite that he'd dated before her. She would pitch a fit when she was confused (which was a lot).

Deciding to spare him, she took his hand again and sighed, "Well, I can't wait to meet your little friend."

Will smiled and they waiting in companionable silence until Seph and McKenna walked up. McKenna was looking at her sister worriedly, while Seph seemed agitated. "Where's everybody else?" Skylar questioned as they moved further up into the line.

"James kinda lost it," McKenna admitted. "Blew up and kicked Samuel, son of Ares', ass."

"Blew up?" Will asked. "Why?"

"He was insulting Seph," McKenna replied. "One second he was fine, just pissed, and the next he flipped out."

"I just don't know why he did it," she mumbled.

Skylar rolled her eyes. She could tell that James had it bad for Seph, almost painfully so.

"All I know is I'm worried sick about him," Seph continued, not even noticing Skylar's eye roll. "He was injured, broken ribs if I read the signs right. Thankfully Zach took off after him."

"You should see the other guy," McKenna grinned, trying her best to ease the tension.

Skylar smirked, and played along with her. "I imagine we will as soon as Will has to visit the infirmary."

Will looked down at her and Skylar eyed him with a message, 'play along. Now!' Apparently catching on quickly, he said, "No worries, Seph, we have the next activity together, I'll check him out then."

Seph managed a weak smile, pushing her frizzy black hair behind her ear, and suddenly yawned. "This is getting to be too much. I can't handle this much longer." Skylar noticed bags under her eyes, which were a dark and dim green instead of the normally bright and vibrant green. Her five foot six frame seemed to be slouching a little, showing off the obvious exhaustion that she was experiencing.

Skylar brushed the hair out of her face and took a closer look, noticing how thin and pale she was. "Seph. Are you okay?"

She nodded and tried to stifle another yawn. "I'm perfectly okay."

"How well have you been sleeping?" Will asked sharply.

"I've been sleeping fine," she replied.

"That's bull," McKenna snapped. Looking at Will she continued talking, completely ignoring her sister's glare. "Honestly, sometimes I know that she goes three or four days without sleep. Other days, she may be out for an hour before she wakes up screaming and sobbing. She won't tell anyone what its about though."

Everyone was quiet for a moment, just looking at Seph, who flushed from embarrassment. The oldest daughter of Poseidon just rolled her eyes and exclaimed, "It really isn't that serious! Just a nightmare."

Skylar regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "Since when is you never sleeping not 'really that serious?'"

Seph scowled at her and muttered, "Screw this, I'm not even hungry."

She walks away still muttering under her breath. "That's not healthy," McKenna observed.

"No it isn't," Will agreed. "Stress is causing this."

"Stress," Skylar repeated, staring at her friend's retreating figure.

"Well," Will reasoned. "She has a lot to be stressed over."

"Yeah," Skylar sighed. "The fact that she has a prophecy on her shoulders, coupled with those deja vu spells that she's been getting lately. Lastly James, he's been pretty rough on her lately."

"Speaking of James," Will sighed, "I need to talk to him, I don't think he realizes how much he's hurting her, but how inconsiderate he's being is starting to piss me off."

"He's hurting too, Will," McKenna muttered, "more than any of us."

"He's being selfish," Will snapped.

"He wasn't selfish today," McKenna defended.

Skylar watched the argument silently, figuring this had something to do with what her and Seph were clueless about.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**JAMES:**

He felt like an idiot. Trekking angrily through the forest seemed to help with the temptation to go back and finish murdering Isaacs. One moment he was alone and the next he heard footsteps behind him, turning around, halfway expecting Seph, an angry glint in her green eyes, completely prepared to tell him off. So it was needless to say that he was surprised to see Zach. James immediately turned around from the son of Hades. "Please, just go away, Zach."

"Dude," Zach said. "Why did you just up and leave like that? Seph's worried sick about you!"

"Please," James said, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and his middle and forefinger, "don't even mention that name right now."

"I think its a bit late for that," Zach snapped. "You may not want to hear it, but you love her as much as you did when Olympus fell! Don't go on treating her like this. Besides, I heard from McKenna that she isn't doing so well."

James looked at him sharply. "What do you mean by that?"

"Have you even spared her a glance?" Zach demanded angrily.

James remained silent, feeling ashamed and angry with himself. Also a feeling of protectiveness started washing over him. He took a slow step toward the son of Hades and growled, "Zach, what's wrong with her?"

Zach turned around and began walking away, over his shoulder he said loudly, "I know I'm your friend, man, but you're on your own for this one... you kinda deserve it."

James refrained from cursing as Zach left.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

He found himself in Chiron's office, discussing his punishment. Needless to say, it wasn't his idea of a fun time. James didn't honestly care about the punishment, because it had been worth it. Seph won't be harassed by Isaacs anymore, and he won't have to put up with him hitting on her. Especially when Isaacs still remembered what happened after Olympus fell. Scowling at the though, he returned to the conversation, hearing Seph's plea.

"He didn't do anything wrong, Chiron! You heard what Sam said, James was protecting me."

Chiron was silent.

"If anything," Seph sighed. "Don't give him the punishment. Give it to me, he doesn't deserve it."

"And you do, Ms. Current?" Chiron asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It was a gut reaction!" Matt exclaimed. "I would have done the same thing for Claire. You can't expect him to sit around and let the person he cares about get talked to like the way she was."

"Besides," Percy shrugged. "If James wouldn't have jumped on him, I would have."

"Yes, I deserve it," Seph exclaimed. "If I wouldn't have been too shy and bashful to stand up for myself, none of this would have happened!"

"The only person we haven't heard from is James. Would you like to defend yourself?" Chiron asked.

James shrugged slightly, and said, "You saw what I did, Chiron. You heard what he said... and I imagine you remember before," he gave him a meaningful look, "all I have to say is that it was worth it, and if I had to go back in time, I'd do it again."

The other four occupants in the small room looked at him with something akin to shock. James shrugged.

Chiron leaned forward, "For the sake of peace at camp, I'm asking you to go and apologize for your impulsive actions. If you do that, I won't punish you."

He heard Seph facepalm, Matt groan, and Percy mutter, "Might as well get the punishment started."

"Sorry, sir," James shrugged. "I'll take your punishment."

Chiron raised an eyebrow, and shook his head. "I expected no less from you, Mr. Tempest. You're going to be cleaning the horse stables tomorrow."

James nodded mutely.

"Very well, then," Chiron said, "best go to dinner, you'll be playing Capture the Flag in a few minutes."

As a group, they shuffled out of the office and outside. Immediately James grabbed Seph's wrist and whirled her around to face him. She automatically put her free hand on his chest, trying to keep her balance.

"Um, James?" it was Percy.

"You two go ahead," James said, not taking his eyes off of the now sickly looking Seph. "I need to talk to her."

Both boys nodded and left them completely alone. James gripped her by her upper arms, sensing the fact that she was going to try to make a run for it.

"What's wrong with you?" he half growled.

"What do you mean," she inquired, trying to shove him away from her. He was too concerned to be deterred.

He took a closer look at her eyes, seeing the dark bags underneath them. She was pale, and looked terrible.

He released one of her arms to place a hand on her forehead, trying to figure out if she had a fever or not. She was fine. "No fever," he muttered. "You don't have the flu. Why haven't you been sleeping?"

"Sometimes the fact that you're Roman is annoying..." she muttered. "You and your damned medical training."

James didn't respond, only looking in her eyes, silently promising that he wasn't going to ask a second time, but he wasn't going anywhere until she answered him.

After a few minutes of battling wills, Seph finally caved (a first), and muttered, "Nightmares."

James frowned, "Will can give you something for a dreamless sleep. There's no need to be like this. Your eating habits?"

"Never hungry," she mumbled.

"That's not good for you," James replied through clenched teeth. Why hadn't he seen it before? Why didn't anyone tell him?

"You're going to eat tonight," he promised, leading her toward the pavilion.

~THEFINALBATTLE~

Percy finally clued Seph in to the Capture the Flag arrangements... James as well. And it was safe to say that neither of them were pleased.

It was Poseidon, Jupiter, Hermes, Demeter, and Athena, vs. Ares, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hades, and Hephaestus (mainly).

James was scowling at Percy as Seph demanded, "What do mean partners?"

"Look," Percy said scowling as Annabeth walked up. "It was her idea, and I back it up completely!"

"Why do you think this is a good idea?" James asked, a twinge of desperation in his voice.

"You two need to start getting along," Annabeth said calmly. "This is the only way I can see it starting."

"I can see this ending terribly," James informed her.

"Calculated risk," Annabeth shrugged. "Make an honest effort."

James felt a scowl coming to his face as he regarded the daughter of Athena.

"Anyways," Annabeth said. "The whole strategy revolves around you two."

"What do you mean?" Seph snapped irritably.

"You guys are going to capture the flag," Annabeth responded.

James blinked, "You want her to retrieve the flag... in her condition?"

"There's nothing wrong with me!" Seph snapped.

"Bull," James growled.

"Why do you care?" she questioned, her voice laced with contempt.

James ignored her. "Let me go alone. With her like this, she'll only slow me down, anyway."

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" Seph exclaimed. "I don't need your help, or your concern. I can keep up just fine!"

"Really?" James asked, feeling a taunting smile come to his face and he leaned a bit closer to Seph as he spoke in only a whisper. Completely forgetting about Percy and Annabeth.

"Yeah," she said defiantly, a pinkish tint on her pale cheeks.

James felt himself breath in sharply as her breath fanned across his face. Seph looked him straight in the eyes and he felt himself leaning forward...

Percy coughed loudly. James jumped back, blinking rapidly, feeling himself flush violently. He looked away from everyone and said, "Fine. I wanna see if Current can keep up."

With that said, he walked away from them, and the wind carried Percy's next comment to Annabeth straight to him. "This is going to be a very interesting game."

~THEFINALBATTLE~

Annoyance was the first thing he felt. Seph hadn't said a word to him as they walked down the forest at a breakneck pace. He heard her strained breathing and he desperately wanted to stop and let her rest, but he also wanted her to cave. Maybe if she caved, she might be exhausted enough to rest permanently for the game. He was worried about her and she was too stubborn for her own good.

Her breathing became more and more labored, and James found himself caving faster than her. As soon as they broke into a small clearing, James said, "Alright, Current, sit down."

"What?" she demanded, her hands on her hips as she turned to look at him.

"Sit down," James demanded. "Five minute break."

"I don't need a break," she snapped.

"Just sit down," James barked, not in the mood for discussions.

She took a step toward him challengingly. "Why do you care?"

It was the second time that day that she'd thrown his words back into his face, and he was sick of it.

"I don't know why you care about me, but you might as well stop it," Seph continued, "because I sure as hell don't care about you!"

"That," he growled stepping closer to her, "is a damned lie."

She stiffened up and her eyes became glazed over. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her temples. Her breathing became more labored and she stumbled forward. Instinctively, James' arms whipped forward and he caught her before she could fall.

Gently, he set her down, leaning against a tree. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a squashed baggie of ambrosia. She was looking up at him through half lidded eyes.

"Whas tha?" she mumbled.

"Something to help you get better," James responded, breaking it in half and placed it in her mouth.

She chewed and swallowed it, some of the color coming back into her face. For good measure, James placed the other piece in her mouth as well. Seconds after she swallowed, she became lucid.

"Gods," she groaned. "This is getting annoying."

"Next time you're gonna listen to me," James informed her dead serious.

"Says who?" she questioned, her voice no longer sounded breathless.

"Apparently your body," he informed her, checking her eyes and face, making sure she was truly okay.

"Jeez, Tempest," she snapped irritably, slapping his hands away, "I'm fine!"

James took his hands away, feeling vaguely annoyed. "Alright, you still need to rest."

"No I don't, we need to go," she informed him, about to jump to her feet.

James placed his hands on her shoulder, holding her down. "Damn it, Seph!"

She looked at his hands on her shoulders, most likely glaring daggers at them. "Look at me," he said, his tone harsh.

She refused to so James removed one of his hands from her shoulder and placed two fingers under her chin, "Rest for five minutes. Let the food work its way in," he said softly, "or you're just going to repeat this again."

She just looked at him, confusion in her eyes. He stared back silently, completely hypnotized. He felt his resolve and self-control start to crumble. He knew that he had to look away before he did something incredibly stupid... too late.

Leaning down slightly, he pulled her into a tight embrace, needing to be close to her. She immediately stiffened, the shock making her body rigid against his. Logic started creeping back into his head and he was about to pull back away from her, when she slowly wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face into his shoulder. "I'm so confused," she breathed.

"Me too," he sighed. "I wish I could do more to help you."

Seph pulled away from him, and was blushing furiously. James just stood there rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. As his thoughts came back into his head, he frowned and looked away from her, berating himself for not thinking. He didn't want to give her any ideas... there was no way he was going to let her wrench his heart out again.

James starred frowning, throwing his walls back up into place and placing a frown on his face. "We should probably go," he said thankful to hear the usual steel in his voice as he talked to her.

She nodded mutely and they continued on. It was an awkward and tension filled silence. He could feel confusion rolling off of her. Not allowing himself to feel bad, he marched on.

~THEFINALBATTLE~

MATT:

He'd been tailing Seph and James for the past thirty minutes. Seph looked terrible, and he was starting to get aggravated with James for not stopping and making her rest when James called for a stop.

They started arguing heatedly, and Matt figured that it would be a good time to swoop in and knock out James, he could easily fight off Seph, she probably wouldn't be much of a threat in her condition. He took an eager step forward, when a knife came to rest on his neck. Immediately, he stiffened and went rigid.

"What do you think your doing?" an very familiar voice whispered. He could hear the smile in her voice.

"Well," Matt confided, "I was going to make sure that my last thirty minutes didn't go to waste, but it seems as though you've already managed to screw that up for me, Claire. So what do you think your doing?"

"Making sure my last forty-five minutes didn't go to waste," she informed him cheekily.

"Really," Matt mused. "So you've been silently tracking me for the last three quarters of an hour."

"I am a daughter of Hermes, you know," she replied dryly.

"Oh, I know," Matt said.

"So what was that comment supposed to mean if you weren't questioning my stealth?" she questioned.

"I was questioning the fact that you've spent half of the game tracking me, why am I so important?" he questioned.

"All of those stories you told me about being in jungles and forests," she replied. "You'd be pretty damaging on the loose."

He smiled slightly before grabbing her arm that was holding the knife and pushing it away slightly, noticing that she let him do so way too easily. He turned around and. He felt the knife on his throat again. He pretended to ignore it as he pulled her closer to him. "So," he whispered. "You've got me trapped. What're you gonna do with me."

She pursed her lips apparently looking for a good answer. He thought hard for a moment, maybe he could distract her before getting away, he didn't want to hurt her. Leaning down he felt that knife pressing harder against his throat before she pulled the knife down, following his neck. He pressed his lips softly against hers. He smiled slightly as she removed the knife from his throat and began eagerly kissing him back. She slid her arms around his neck, and just when he was about to push her away and run, he felt something hard against the back of his head. The hilt of her dagger. It caused his vision to go black as he fell to his knees. He was dizzy and woozy as he felt his hands being tied with rope behind him. When he was completely coherent, he looked up and saw Claire standing over him, her hands in fist on her hips and she was grinning triumphantly down at him. Her lips were quivering and he could tell that she was trying not to laugh.

"That was a dirty trick," he informed her scowling.

"Like you didn't have one of your own up your sleeve," she shot back rolling her eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said trying his best to appear innocent.

"Don't play stupid with me," she said shrugging. "Do you really think I don't know you? The last thing that you would do is kiss me during Capture the Flag when I'm on the opposite side and your team is counting on you to take out two of the Big Three's children."

He was silent, refusing to admit that she was right, because if he did that, he was admitting to defeat. Instead he said, "So, now that you have me, where are we going?"

"I'm going to do what my next job is," she replied.

Matt jumped to his feet. "And me?"

She didn't reply with words, she merely smiled and grabbed him by the shoulders. For a second he thought that she was going to knee him... painfully, when she gently pushed him backward. His feet automatically went with her, he wasn't properly balanced at the moment with his hands awkwardly bound behind him. Finally his back hit a thick tree.

"PINEY,"she called. Suddenly a nymph came into his view, he imagined that he name was Piney.

"Hey, Claire," she replied cheerily. "And," she turned to face him, an eyebrow raised as she realized that his hands were bound.

"Think you could keep him out of sight until I come back for him?" Claire questioned.

"I'm good," Matt informed her. "I'd really rather not."

Claire rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the nymph.

"Of course," she replied. "Its the least I can do since you stopped that fire from spreading to my tree a few years back."

Matt looked at Claire and saw her cheeks turn pink. "It was nothing," she mumbled.

"So the little girl's a little hero," Matt said, figuring that the nickname would rile her up before she left.

Claire rolled her eyes at him grumbling under her breath some pretty harsh swear words all directed at him. Louder she said, "Don't be an ass." Looking at Piney and said, "If he gives you a hard time, I give you permission to knock him out."

Matt frowned at her confused. "Wait since when..."

He trailed off as Claire began walking away. "See you later and we can talk when I get back!"

He closed his eyes. So much for a peaceful attempt at getting what he wanted. He was going to stick with what he knew best. He let out a loud sigh as she disappeared from view, one thought going through his head, 'Why me?'

**Hope you liked the humorous attempt at an ending. I want to know something PLEASE REVIEW WITH AN ANSWER. Would you like another OC fic? This one would still be EC, but it would be one shots. Kinda like short stories that I didn't tell in the main fics. I've been thinking about it for a while, so tell me what you think.**


	3. Capture the Flag and Claire's Memories

**ZACH:**

He was sure that he had located the enemy base. He had Nico, Hazel, Mark, and Kayla with him. He looked through the trees and saw the clearing. It was small, a thick line of trees all around. The flag, decorated with a wild boar and a spear, was standing in plain sight in the middle. As enticing as it looked, the scene around it killed his mood. Guards, there may not be a whole lot of them, but the people that were there were gonna be an issue. Jason, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Travis, Katie, and McKenna. Now all of them were fearsome, but he knew that once he stepped foot into that clearing he was a walking target by one specific person: McKenna.

Swearing violently under his breath, he looked around at his teammates. No point in getting scared. He'd happily distract McKenna if it made it easier to get the flag. "Let's do this," Nico muttered.

Before anyone had any time to reconsider the consequences of what they were doing, the small group rushed in. Nico and Hazel immediately darted after Percy and Annabeth, Mark and Kayla attacked Jason and Piper, and he was stuck with McKenna, Travis, and Katie.

Travis came after him first, his sword aiming for his exposed side. Zach easily dodged the strike, and kicked his leg out as the son of Hermes was completing the swing, causing him to fall to the ground. With the breath knocked out of him, Zach doubted Travis would be any harm at the moment. Katie was up next, she had two short daggers in her hand, holding them like she knew what she was doing. Zach had to admit the look in her green eyes was pretty intimidating. He looked down and saw the grass starting to knot up over his feet. Immediately he jumped out of its hold and lunged forward, taking Gardner by surprise. She stumbled back into McKenna, who seemed to be content in letting them fight and wear him out before she fought. That was fine by him. Immediately, he slammed the hilt of his sword into the back of Katie's head, muttering a quiet apology as she crumpled to the ground.

"You're next, Suave?" he asked cheekily.

McKenna grinned and walked forward, "Yes I am."

She took her sword off of her bracelet and came at him immediately. Zach barely managed to deflect a cut that would have given him a scar to match Matt's. His eyes narrowed as she lunged toward him fiercely, trying to pull his feet out from under him. He jumped up and swung his own leg out, only to have her back out of the way.

"Zach!" Mark barked. "Are you fighting or playing footsie?"

Flushing Zach eyed McKenna, looking for an opening to attack. She mirrored his movements, they slowly circled around each other. Zach was the one to attack this time, he sprung forward and swung his sword for an opening in her armor on the side. She was a second too slow, and the blade grazed her side. Swearing violently, she attacked him again, her eyes narrowed, looking for an opening, and Zach wasn't about to make one.

1 for Zach 0 for McKenna.

**SEPH:**

They'd found the clearing maybe thirty minutes after Seph almost passed out. They were busy crouching down, hiding from everybody. Seph tried not to think about how tired she was as she sat beside James, who seemed to emit a comforting warmth that almost put her to sleep... not that she'd tell him that. She awkwardly held back a yawn as she peered through. There were two people guarding the flag. The trees were thin on all sides, which would allow any possible back up parties to come to the guards' aid. With the river being so far away and the condition she was in, a flashflood would make her pass out. Possibly longer than a few hours.

The seconds ticked by as they silently got their thoughts together. "Alright," James said. "Let's go."

"This doesn't scream 'trap' to you?" Seph demanded heatedly under her breath.

"Yeah," James admitted, sparing her a short glance before turning back to their target, staring at it intently.

They were about to jump forward when a twig snapped behind them and quiet curses were being uttered. Both spun around silently, swords at the ready. When they saw that it was Claire, both immediately lowered their weapons. She grinned at them and said, "Need a runner?"

Seph felt a smile slowly creeping on to her face, it might actually work after all.

"Okay," James whispered. "All three of us are going to jump into the clearing, Seph, you and I are going to distract the guards. Claire, you're gonna grab that flag and run like hell, got it?"

Both nodded, it was a simple plan, less could go wrong with a simple plan. Little did she know that everything was about to go completely wrong. They did just that. The flag wasn't heavily guarded at first. The two guards were daughters of Aphrodite oddly enough. James attacked the nearest one while Seph was right behind him going for the other. Claire had just taken the flag down when more enemy demigods came through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing that she needed to go.

The last thing she clearly remember hearing is James shouting, "Run, Claire!"

She'd allowed herself a quick look at James, who was trying to take out as many of the soldiers as possible. As soon as she turned back around the daughter of Aphrodite had a pink powder in her palm. Seph realized what it was right before she blew it in her face. Seph seized up and clenched her eyes closed. "Damn it, Lacey," she snapped.

She refused to open her eyes even as the clearing got quiet again, telling her that the soldiers were now chasing Claire.

"Seph?"

She wanted to scream, it was James. And at the moment his voice sounded so alluring... _no_, she snapped at herself, _don't open your eyes! If you do it'll-_

"Seph," James said again, his voice was more insistent.

_Damn it, can't he just go away?_ "What," she managed to spit out through clenched teeth.

"Why are you standing like that? Why are your eyes closed? Are you okay?" he questioned.

Of course his concern now made her heart skip a beat. "I'm just peachy," she said stiffly, "do me a favor and go away."

"I can't until the end of the game," his voice coming from in front of her, she found it harder to resist the temptation to look at him. "We're partners, remember?"

"Damn it, James!" Seph snapped. "If you know what's good for you, you'll leave!"

She could picture him frowning, his eyebrows knitted together, his eyes narrowed, his lips thinning slightly... so cute! The logical part of her wanted to scream, but as the dust worked its way into her system, logic seemed to be getting more and more unlogical. When his hand touched the bare skin of her upper arm, she felt electric tingles run all throughout her body.

She couldn't take it anymore. "Seph, what's wrong. Look at me."

Her will power finally gave out. She opened her eyes at his last command, to be truthful at that point, he probably could have gotten her to do anything. Looking directly at him, she managed to say, "Love dust," before she completely lost control.

**JAMES:**

When she uttered the words love dust, her eyes briefly flashed a bright pink before turning back to the original green that they normally were. Her pale face seemed to regain most of its color as she looked at him and she seemed wide awake. He felt a cool hand brush the sweaty hair that was sticking from his forehead out of the way before the back of it trailed down his cheek, making him shiver slightly.

"Seph," he said shakily, grabbing her hand and tenderly pulling it away from his face, "you aren't in your right mind."

He'd only had time to think, with a certain amount of dry humor that he'd heard her say those exact words to him on their first quest together when she leaned up, taking advantage of the fact that he was on an ADHD induced daydream for all of three seconds, and pressed her lips gently against his. It had been a year, a full year since he'd kissed her, a year since he'd held her. All he wanted to do was ignore the fact that her mind was altered and tell himself that he was embracing the real Seph. He found himself kissing her back at first, but when it hit him that this wasn't Seph doing any of this, he immediately pushed away from her.

She looked hurt and James immediately felt guilty. "Look," he said honestly, "it isn't like I don't find you attractive, and that I don't want to kiss you-"

"Then why stop," she breathed.

"Because this isn't you," James said.

"What are you talking about?" Seph demanded. "This is me, I'm Persephone Current, no one else."

"Okay," James said, wishing he could believe her. "This isn't a good time anyway. We're in the middle of Capture the Flag..."

He trailed off as the conch horn sounded, letting them know that the game was over. "Come on," he said, feeling as though he was talking to a child. "We should probably go."

He felt his face heat up slightly as Seph intertwined their fingers together. Resigned to his situation, he walked silently to the stream, trying not to enjoy the fact that she was resting her head on his shoulder the way she used to. They made it to the stream and James felt a mild feeling of shock to see that Claire had made it. Then he saw why, she'd stripped herself of her armor for more speed. Claire was cursing at Austin, son of Apollo for hitting her shoulder with a blunted arrow.

"That's gonna leave one hell of a bruise!" she exclaimed.

She saw Seph and James and grinned at them, "I made..."

She trailed off and just stared, completely dumbfounded. He saw McKenna walking up, and before he could say anything to her, she backhanded him with enough force that it was probably heard very clearly throughout the clearing.

"What the hell are you doing, Tempest?" she hissed. "Are you trying to play with her emotions? She's confused enough as it is!"

James frowned at McKenna, feeling thoroughly offended. "Do you really think I would do something like that?" He growled. "Do you even know me?"

"Then what the hell are you doing?" she snapped.

"I'm not doing anything," he retorted, "this is all her!"

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"Lacey blew love dust in her face," James replied grimly. "I got her to open her eyes, but I swear I didn't know. She was snapping at me to go away and I figured that she was having another one of her deja vu spells and didn't want her passing out again."

"What do you mean _again_?" McKenna demanded.

"Not important," James said calmly. "You've gotta get her away from me."

Seph didn't even seem to realize that they were talking about her. She seemed content to hold his hand and lean against him. He silently pleaded to Poseidon not to kill him, and silently asked Aphrodite why she hated him. Of course he got no signs from either so he had no idea if he was safe or not.

"Okay," McKenna said bringing him out of his reverie. "Just babysit her for one more minute."

She clearly didn't realize what she was asking him to do. His breath caught in his throat as Seph began lightly running her fingers up and down his arm. He could feel the smile on her face against his shoulder. When she placed a feather light kiss there, he wanted to scream in frustration.

McKenna and Zach both walked over, "It was a draw, Bruno, I don't care if you cut my side," McKenna snapped.

Zach smirked at her and laughed when he saw the look on James' face (which was probably hilarious). "I see you two are getting along amazingly well."

James glared at him conveying the silent message, _go to hades_, quite clearly. "McKenna," James said in a strained voice.

McKenna sighed and grabbed Seph by her unoccupied hand. "Come on, its time to go to bed."

"Can't James walk me to my cabin?" she asked.

James shook his head rapidly. He was Roman, but even his self control had it's limits. "No," McKenna said. "He has to talk to Percy."

"Fine," Seph sighed. She looked up at James and her face immediately brightened. "See you tomorrow."

He nodded mutely. Before anyone could say or do anything else, she pulled him down to her level and kissed him softly. "Goodnight," she whispered.

James gave her a strained smile and closed his eyes and she ran her fingers over his cheek once again. He jerked away from her and she looked slightly annoyed. He was glad that the majority of the crowd had dispersed, leaving only their friends there. Percy and Annabeth beamed at him, probably for helping them win, Will, Zach, and McKenna looked at him with sympathy, and Skylar looked at him with something similar to suspicion and confusion in her eyes.

McKenna led a pouty Seph away from him and toward the cabins area.

Percy and Annabeth left soon after. He walked back with Skylar and Will. She looked at James with a raised eyebrow before asking him a startling question.

"There was something between you two before, wasn't there?" she questioned.

Both Will and James froze and turned to look at Skylar.

"Oh come on," she rolled her eyes, "the way you act around her its obvious that its painful."

James just blinked and said, "There was. It ended terribly, and I don't plan on going down that path again."

"What did she do that was so wrong?" Skylar demanded.

James looked at Will for a moment as he tried to think. Finally he decided to go for the half truth, "She forgot about us."

Before Skylar could question him any further, James began walking quickly, leaving them to walk by themselves.

**CLAIRE:**

She sighed, thankful that everyone had left. She began her journey through the forest, thanking Hermes for her stealthiness. That was one thing she could give herself, she was pretty darn graceful... even if she was overly ADHD. Her eyes scanned the darkness around her, looking for any sign of monsters as she stepped into the small clearing where she'd caught Matt.

"Piney," she said quietly, her voice carrying quite far in the still air.

The nymph came out of her tree and looked at Claire sleepily. "I imagine you want the boy back."

Claire nodded and smiled kindly at her.

She snapped her fingers and Matt literally fell from on of the higher branches of the tall tree, he seemed to hit every one of them going down, which probably slowed him down as he made his last ten feet with no branches to break the fall. He landed on his back with a loud thud and she heard him groan slightly. His legs were sprawled, nothing looked to be broken, but most of his body weight had landed on his arms, which were still bound behind his back. Immediately she ran to him, dropping to her knees beside him, she saw him looking up at her, a dazed look in his eyes. She gave him her best fake smile and said, "Come on Matt, sweetheart, listen to me, you have to sit up so I can release you arms. I just want to make sure you didn't break anything, okay?"

He was apparently lucid enough to register what she was saying, because he sat up with her help, she made him lean sideways against her chest to makes sure he didnt fall becaude he still looked disoriented. She saw him wince and said, "I know this is a stupid question, but where does it hurt?"

"I think my right shoulder's dislocated," he managed, clearly holding back from cursing. "You friend's a real nice nymph, dropping people twenty feet."

"I'm so stupid," Claire muttered to herself. "I should have known something like this was going to happen."

"You didn't throw me out of the pine tree," Matt informed her.

"Can you just get angry at me for once," Claire snapped, cutting the ropes around his wrists.

"You want me to be angry?" Matt questioned.

"I handed you over to a nymph who dropped you twenty feet! And if those branches wouldn't have been there to slow you down, you'd be dead. You have every right to be angry!"

"Claire," Matt sighed, "I don't get angry with you because when I'm angry, I tend to do some very stupid and violent things. I don't think I could ever hurt you, but I take extra measures, because I am a son of Ares."

"I'm going to pop your shoulder back into its socket," Claire said, not sure how to respond to how much he cared. "Its gonna hurt."

"I know," Matt replied through clenched teeth.

_(The next thirty seconds or so were filled with enough cursing to change the rating of this fic therefore just use your imagination)_

Claire looked at Matt apologetically. "I am so sorry," she said, sitting beside him and letting him rest his head on her shoulder as she gently wrapped one arm around him and the other played with his hair. She pressed a soft kiss to his temple.

"I already told you I'm not mad," Matt replied.

"You should be," she said.

"The last time I was angry with you I put my hands on you, I'll never do that again," he whispered. He put his face in his hands and sighed deeply. "You can't even begin to imagine how much of a monster I feel because of that."

"Matt," Claire said gently. "You've never hurt me before. What are you talking about?"

"When as were in Hades," he replied. "I grabbed you by the elbows and forced you to sit down. That never should have happened."

"You know I probably wouldn't be here if it hadn't. You we're just concerned, baby. I was exhausted and we fought the Keres shortly after," Claire ran a hand through his hair again. "There might have been enough left of me to fit into a brown bag."

She felt Matt wince. "Please don't talk like that," he mumbled.

"Its the truth," Claire shrugged. Smiling slightly, and wanting to take some of the stress off of him (though she had no idea why he was the one worried about hurting her), she said, "Besides, I imagine you'd be fine without me. Might have found yourself a girl that doesn't make you almost die on a regular basis because of stupid ass decisions."

Apparently that was the wrong thing to say. Matt stiffened and lifted his head to look at her. She looked straight back, she'd gotten better at holding his piercing gaze, but she still felt shaky under it. This time it was a creepy kind of shaky, her entire insides went cold and she actually felt a flicker of fear. "You didn't honestly just say that," he growled.

"What did I say that was so wrong?" she questioned, looking down because she could no longer hold his gaze.

"I think I just broke my vow," he said his voice as harsh as sandpaper. "Do you really think that you're that worthless to me?"

Claire remained silent, continuously looking at the ground.

"Claire," Matt said his voice quavering, "if anything... bad ever happened to you anything at all, I don't know what I would do."

Not sure how to respond, she leaned over and pressed her lips softly against his, pulling him as close as humanly possible. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against him as they both fell to the ground. She allowed herself a few more minutes of indulgence, every kiss that they shared sent electric tremors through her entire body. She immediately pulled away when they started getting a bit too heated, and she felt herself getting too excited. Matt pushed away the same time she did, his cheeks had the red tint that she'd come to adore on him.

Breathing heavily, she leaned her head against the ground. "I hope you know that I feel the same," she informed him. "If something ever happened to you, I don't think I could go back to being just me, to being a petty thief and prankster."

"Claire," Matt whispered, "you're perfect just the way you are."

"That's just it, Matt. You hold me in a light that I just can't see," she sighed. "Its wonderful to hear you compliment and think so highly of me, but I just don't know if you actually understand what you're saying."

"Let me rephrase that. "You are the picture of perfection _to me_. You're _my_ angel, and nothing will ever change that."

Claire blushed deeply and looked away from him. He was very nice, and knew just what to say to her. Unlike most of the other sons of Ares, he possessed a brain, he loved to fight, but he wouldn't pressure someone into doing so. According to him, the most fun he'd ever had fighting was when Lenny had hurt her...

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

_Claire was walking beside the Demeter cabin, glancing at the beautiful flowers sprouting out of the windows. She saw that Miranda's father had sent her some cookies again. Smiling to herself, she subconsciously noted to come back and get some. She walked on for a few more feet until she came up to McKenna Suave. Smiling, Claire decided to stop and talk, wondering how her sister, who'd collapsed the day before and had been in the infirmary ever since, was doing._

_She'd barely had the chance to say, hello before she felt herself flying to the side, slamming into a tree, hitting her head hard enough to cause her vision to blackout. A moment later, she came around and felt a hand around her neck, she was being forced to her feet. Her arms were wrapped around the person's wrist as she looked at her unknown attacker._

_Looking forward, she saw soulless brown pits, a permanent scowl, a long and pale scar on his forehead, and buzz cut brown hair. It was Lenny Scott. He was scowling at her as his hand tightened around her throat. Claire looked around, wondering why no one was helping her, she looked around and realized that the only person left was McKenna, who looked slightly dazed and had blood coming out of her nose, letting her know that the jackass had punched her._

_Looking back at Lenny, who was slowly cutting off oxygen to her already unsteady body. Her protests, which involved kicking and scratching, were becoming pathetically weaker. "So, you little bitch, you think that you can throw something at me. Just because I was teaching my own girlfriend a lesson in talking back-"_

_"Miranda doesn't need you hitti-" her words were cut off as he added more pressure to his throat._

_"Apparently," Lenny growled, "you need a lesson too." He smirked, "My girlfriend broke up with me apparently she now thinks its okay to talk back and stand up to me. This is your fault."_

_Claire would have replied that she was glad to be of service when he continued._

_"I kinda want a new one," he informed her. "One with spirit," he leaned forward, "you're always so much fun to watch break." When his mouth was on top of hers, she squirmed and wiggled, trying to get out of his grasp. She had to stop as he clenched his hand around her throat. She remained limp as he continue his assault on her mouth, his hand never left her throat and the other one was Zeus knew where. When he finally removed his mouth from hers, only to bend slightly and kiss an exposed portion of her neck. When he did, she saw a truly frightening sight, Matt, looked livid. He was beside the neighboring cabin, even from their distance, she saw the fury in his eyes. He was cut off from view as Lenny pressed a surprisingly gentle kiss to her forehead._

_"Go out with me?" he whispered, his free hand trailing down her cheek._

_"You're crazy," she snapped. "Get the hell away from me!"_

_Before she could push his hand off her throat, his began tightening his grip again. Just then, a arm wrapped around his neck and he was tossed to the ground like a rag doll. Claire was thrown forward and hit the ground, coughing violently as she curled in a ball, trying to gasp for breath. Above her, she heard shouting from Matt._

_"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded._

_With her eyes closed she honestly didn't know who he was talking to, all she knew was that the venom in her voice made her cringe and she was hoping he wasn't mad at her._

_"I was asking her out," Lenny said. "Is that illegal? It isn't as though you have any claim over her! She's fair game."_

_"She's nobody's game," Matt growled._

_She heard the sound of skin contacting skin, and someone landed on the ground beside her. "Something wrong, Andrews?" That was definitely Lenny beside her. "Did me kissing her make you mad?"_

_Claire forced her eyes open, still completely dazed. Matt had Lenny by the collar, the look in his eyes was terrifying. _

_Lenny landed what seemed to be a hard punch to his ribs. Matt stumbled backward a few steps before jumping forward as Lenny was getting to his feet, he elbowed him in the collarbone and Lenny fell to the ground. With a thud. Claire heard a groan escape his lips. _

_She slowly tried to get up, but everytime she would, the blood would rush to her head and she would fall back down. She saw Matt grip Lenny around the throat and the muscles in his forearm were tensing, showing the exertion of strength he was using. Lenny just managed to break his grip, but Matt was apparently finished with him._

_"Get," he kicked him in the ribs, "out," another kick, "of," kick, "my," kick, "sight," Matt kicked him one last time before saying, "you pathetic piece of shit. You better hope she's okay!"_

_Lenny got up and limped away, grumbling to himself. "Is that the best you got?" he demanded._

_Matt didn't even seem to hear him as he fell to his knees beside the dazed daughter of Hermes. She felt him press her down to the ground. His cool fingers were trailing lightly across her hot neck. She winced as he touched a part where his nails had dug. Noticing her discomfort, he leaned in closer and examined it._

_"You are a magnet for trouble," he murmured. "Never in my life have I met someone like you."_

_"I'm fine," she insisted hoarsely._

_"Shut up," he murmured as he put his forearm under her neck and gently pushed her into a sitting position. Blood rushed to her head making it pound painfully and her vision went out of focus for a moment. She leaned heavily against his chest breathing raggedly. "You need to get this patched up," he murmured, his hand gently cupping an amazingly sore part of her scalp. "The tree must have cut your when he shoved you against it."_

_"That was when he threw me into it," she groaned._

_Matt visibly tensed as she spoke. "I'm going to kill him," he growled through clenched teeth_

_"Don't do anything stupid," she commanded, her voice pathetically weak._

_She felt his other arm slide under her knees and he stood up taking her with him. Immediately he began walking toward the infirmary. "I'm not hurt," she protested weakly, "I can walk."_

_Matt silenced her with a stern look. Sighing in exasperation she relaxed and leaned her head against his arm. "That's better, isn't it?"_

_Claire turned so she wasn't facing him, she was blushing bright red. She just nodded. "McKenna," she said suddenly, "where's McKenna?"_

_"She's the one that found me," Matt replied. "She went to the infirmary as far as I know, don't worry."_

_"Zach's gonna flip," Claire said. _

_"I know," Matt shrugged. "That's why I didn't hurt him as much as I could have."_

_Claire thought that Matt had beaten him pretty badly, but who was she to judge. She turned away from Matt and saw that they were in front of the infirmary. "Did you want him to?" he questioned suddenly, his voice soft._

_Claire turned and looked at him as he walked inside. The sun was no longer on his tanned features, so shadows defined his face, making him look even angrier. "Want him to what?"_

_"Kiss you," he replied. "I... I figured I was helping you out, but I never asked..."_

_Claire blinked. There was something lying beneath his forced light tone._

_"No," she said after a moment of looking at him. "I didn't want him anywhere near me. Thank you."_

_He sat her down on an unoccupied bed, far away from everyone else. It was clear that he wanted to talk to her about something. A familiar blonde haired blue eyed girl walked over, when she saw Claire and Matt, she smiled. "How come I never see either of you two here without the other? I mean I see McKenna and Zach come in here by themselves, and they're actually going out!"_

_Both shrugged, and Claire joked, "I think he stalks me."_

_"You know you love it," Matt shot back._

_"So what happened?" Kayla questioned._

_"Lenny Scott," Matt replied. "Son of Eris."_

_"That moron," Kayla rolled her eyes._

_She soaked forward and looked at her head, face, and neck. "I think you'll live," she said, "but the cut on the back of your head needs cleaning and closing. Just to make sure you're okay, I'm going to keep you for the night." She looked at Matt. "You need some ambrosia. Cracking your ribs again?"_

_"This time it was definitely worth it," he responded._

_"You were carrying me with cracked ribs?" Claire demanded._

_"Later," Matt replied._

_"Don't tell me later, Andrews," Claire growled._

_Kayla handed them both their medications and hurriedly walked off. Claire drank her nectar quietly and looked at Matt who looked as though he was going to refuse to take his. She got on her knees and walked over to him so they were almost eye to eye. Taking his cup from him she held it to his lips. He looked at her his mouth closed._

_"We can do this the easy way or the hard way, either way, you're taking this medicine," she informed him._

_He kept his mouth shut and looked at her with raised eyebrows, inviting her to accept his challenge. Placing the cup of nectar on the table, she stood beside Matt and forcefully shoved him on the bed. He had a surprised look on his face along with a smile as he laid there, his mouth still closed. She narrowed her eyes at him and got to her knees beside him, grabbing the cup. He raised his eyebrows questioningly._

_She smirked slightly an idea forming in her head. She crawled closer to him and placed a hand lightly on his abdomen. He raise an eyebrow. She pressed down and his eyes glazed over in pain and he groaned. She took his opened mouth as an opportunity to shove the medicine in his mouth. He reluctantly swallowed and glared at her._

_She removed her hands from him and smiled. "I win."_

_He rolled his eyes and sat up. "Enough playing. We need to talk."_

_Claire sat criss cross on the bed, looking at Matt concerned. "Something wrong?"_

_"Yeah," he sighed. "Lenny was right."_

_"What?" Claire asked. "How was he right?"_

_"I don't have any claim over you. Just like you don't have one over me. You are, in essence, anyone's fair game," he informed her, looking her straight in the eyes, something he rarely did when they were talking about their complicated relationship._

_"What are you trying to get at?" Claire questioned._

_"I can't stand the thought of any of these idiots flirting with you," he replied, his voice almost sounding territorial, "you were half out of it when he asked, but Lenny asked if him kissing you made me mad. Claire, it set my blood on fire and I was ready to kill."_

_She gaped at him silently, not believing her ears._

_"The only thing I'm asking," Matt said, "is for permission to call you mine and mine only. And considering the fact that you won't listen to my warnings and stay away from me, I don't think that's too much to ask."_

_Claire blinked rapidly pushing away the freezing shock. "Matt," she managed, "I was always yours."_

_He smiled at her, an open smile, something that was another extremely rare action. "Lay down, Kayla probably wants you to get some rest."_

_"Are you leaving?" Claire questioned._

_Matt rolled his eyes, "Do I ever?"_

_She shook her head._

_"Exactly," he replied. "I'm not going anywhere."_

**Hey my awesome readers! I have a question. Do you want me to update on a weekly bases, that's when I will try, try being the keyword, to update once a week. The other option is I can update whenever I finish the chapter and I finish proofreading it and everything. The lengths won't be affected, but what might happen is I could end up updating twice a week, but there might be a few times, because of school that I only update twice a month. I can do either, I personally like the second option, because I get your immediate feedback. Review like you've been kind enough to do so far. The action will start picking up rapidly from now on. Promise. Tell me your thoughts on the chapter.**

**A big thanks to SkylarRocaineDaughterofHermes and i-paint-my-dreams for telling me nice things about the chapter, lol **


	4. More Trouble Than Ever

**SKYLAR:**

She was so glad to see the next morning. The day before had been all tension and all drama. She jumped off of the top bunk of the bunk bed that she shared with Claire. That specific daughter of Hermes was still sleeping... then again so was everyone else. It had to have been six o'clock in the morning, and she knew that Will would want to get an early start. She took one last look at the wooden cabin, and all of her siblings, hoping that she would see them soon. She opened up the creaky door, thankful that her siblings were heavy sleepers. She hurriedly closed the door and ran down the steps and out into the camp, which was just starting to light up.

Will was waiting for her in the pavilion. Like Skylar, he was dressed in an orange tank top and cargo shorts, his quiver full of arrows was on his back and he had a black back pack hanging off his shoulder. In most words, was ready for travel. She smirked and walked over to him, "We match."

He turned around and looked at her. "So we do, Rocaine." He looked her in the eyes and gave her a soft smile, "Ready?"

She nodded confidently. He got up and grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers together. "We stick together this time," he told her seriously, his blue eyes held a hard edge, allowing no discussion. "You are not allowed to tell me to leave you. Got it?"

Skylar looked at him with a small smile and kissed him softly. "Alright."

Will led her to Thalia's pine tree, and there was a van with the camp's symbol sitting there, waiting for them. Will slid the back door open and stepped in. Skylar followed him, closing the door behind her, dim light filtered into the van. She put the nylon bag, donated to her by Claire, in the same seat as Will's objects and took a seat by the son of Apollo. Silence consumed the pair as Argus got onto the bumpy road and began the drive to Manhattan.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Argus stopped in front of a large unkempt lawn. The grass must have been waist high, hiding numerous bugs, snakes, and possible monsters, tall trees dominated the front of the lawn, hiding the building from view. The only thing that Skylar could see was red tiled roof, with half of the tiles missing and half that were still there were cracked.

With that wonderful first impression, that she had when she first laid eyes on the property, she was sure that the extraction mission was going to be harder than she'd originally anticipated.

"Ready?" Will asked from her left as Argus drove away, the sound of the van fading and leaving them in an eerie sort of silence. She nodded and together they waded through the thick grass.

It took them maybe five minutes of walking to make the trees that were hiding their destination from view. And in that time period, she was sure that she'd heard rattling from a snake, growling from.. well she didn't even want to know, and she'd felt something slimy against her exposed ankle.

When they got to the line of trees, both paused and looked up at the building. Skylar noticed, with dismay, that it was a very decent size, she counted ten floors, there were vines covering the grey stone walls on the outside, sometimes curling around window frames that were missing the glass. The doors were boarded up, yellow tape made an X over each door, and in bold black print it said Καταδίκασε, condemned.

"This seems... welcoming," Will murmured.

"One of the basic rules of being a child of Hermes is disregard any signs," Skylar informed him, placing her hand on the door handle. It was locked. Closing her eyes, she concentrated hard on the old, dusty, and rusted mechanism before her. After a few slow seconds, she heard the click of the lock and smiled in satisfaction.

"Let's go and find your little friend," she said, and swung the door open.

As they walked through the door, they were hit by a cold wind. It was as if somebody had turned on the A/C despite the fact that it hadn't been ran in the last twenty years. Skylar scanned the dim room. Torches were lit everywhere giving them a view of what most likely used to be a grand room, there were dim and dirty tiles that probably used to gleam as white. There was a grand staircase that was in the center of the room, leading up to what was probably once a beautiful balcony. The counter was obviously made of wood, because it showed signs of serious deterioration. Skylar walked further in, her footsteps echoing off the walls and high ceiling.

"This may take longer than what we originally thought," Will mumbled, walking until he was beside her.

"We could cover more ground if we-" Will cut her off before she could get any further up.

"No, Skylar," he said firmly. "We stick together."

**JAMES:**

He woke up with a headache. His chest was sore as well. Sitting up with a groan, he sat on the edge of his bed, realizing that it was later than he normally woke up. Jason was already gone. It was Saturday... no activities! Looking at his wrist watch, he saw that it was around ten o'clock. Breakfast would be over by that time. His stomach growled in protest, and he groaned.

He got to his feet and pulled on a clean orange t-shirt and some jeans, not bothering to brush his always messy hair, he opened the cabin door, only to be greeted by Seph. She smiled warmly at him and a faint blush was prominent on her cheeks. Seeing her flushed was normally one of the few ways to make his day, but that particular day, he didn't want to see her, period.

"Hey, James," she muttered, her eyes cast down. "I was wondering... do you want to go for a walk?"

James blinked. Last night, he had to shove her away from him because she wouldn't stop trying to kiss him. Now she was stuttering and shy. And as much as he hated to admit it, and powder induced or not, he found it adorable. When things got back to normal, he was going to have to make her like that more often. 'It's okay,' he thought, giving himself a peptalk, 'as long as she doesn't give me the big puppy eyes look, I can refuse... oh sweet mother of Jupiter, sad eyes... trembling lower lip... be strong, I must be strong, you can resist!'

He looked away from her and said, "I can't... I have to talk to a friend before be goes to breakfast."

"Oh," she sounded heartbroken. "I guess I'll see you later then."

James internally cursed himself for feeling guilty as he nodded mutely. Looking back up at her, he saw that she was staring at him with a neutral expression, but he saw the disappointment in her pretty green eyes. She pulled him into a hug, which he halfheartedly returned, patting her back awkwardly. When she pulled away she smiled at him and walked away.

He inhaled sharply and pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache looming over him in the near future. He needed to find a son of Aphrodite.

He found Michel talking to Piper and Lacey quietly. He awkwardly stood there, as they finished their conversation. Piper was scolding Lacey and from the sound of it, she was talking about Seph.

"That was messed up, Lace," was the last thing she said before all three turned their attention to him.

"I need to reverse the effects," James said desperately. "She's starting to scare me. The real Seph has got to be screaming on the inside!"

"She won't remember anything," Lacey shrugged.

"That's not the point," James snapped. "Besides her memory's been tampered with enough!"

"Calm down," Piper commanded. "It's easy enough to reverse. All you do is give her a display of affection.

James blinked uncomprehendingly. "What?"

"You have to kiss her," Michel said.

"Thank you for speaking English," James said dryly. "Is that all?"

"This is Aphrodite's dust, a peck on the lips isn't going to do it for her," Piper sighed.

That would probably be the last time James ever kissed Seph, did Piper honestly think that he was just going to peck her on the lips?

"I need to find her now," he murmured. "Thanks."

As he was walking off, he heard Lacey say, "Have fuuunnn!" Dragging the last word out. James didn't even look back as he made a rude hand gesture over his shoulder.

It was as if luck was on his side. He saw McKenna and Zach walking toward him hand in hand. Feigning a smile, he ran up to them, wiping the sweat that was building up on his forehead.

"Seph," he said. "I need to see Seph."

"She had another deja vu moments," McKenna said. "Not to mention that she had no sleep the night before. She collapsed on the spot. They brought her to the infirmary. That's why we're here. She's asking for you."

Of course she was.

"Come on, then," James said, his insides felt as though they were freezing. "I know how to stop the dust."

He didn't wait for them, he raced to the infirmary, a few times he was pretty sure that his feet didn't even hit the ground he was going so fast.

He didn't even knock as he slammed the infirmary doors opened. Seph was laying down on the cot on the furthers corner from the door. Besides her, the room was surprisingly vacant of patients. Percy, Bryan, Matt, Kayla, Mark, and Claire were gathered around her, sitting in borrowed chairs. Everyone turned to see who made such a violent and hurried entrance.

James didn't even give them time to get over their surprise. "Is she okay?"

"Define okay," Kayla muttered. "She's in no danger of dying, but she's getting weaker and weaker because she won't sleep and won't eat."

"She didn't sleep last night because of the love dust, right?" James questioned.

Percy nodded. James moved forward and made his way past the chairs and to a semi conscious Seph. "I can fix that."

As soon as she saw him, she seemed to instantly perk up, looking much better. He smiled at her as he got to his knees so they were almost eye level. "Hey," he whispered.

"Hey," she said back just as quietly.

"How are you feeling?" he questioned.

"Not so bad," she replied.

Seeing her hand, he gently took it in his considerably larger one, squeezing it gently. He saw the red tint come back up to her cheeks and he smiled, relishing in how cute it was. Silence consumed the room, and James figured that he'd better do it then and get it over with. Getting to his feet he leaned over her. He brushed her hair out of her face and leaned in, smiling slightly at the furious blush on her cheeks. He kissed her slowly and sweetly, wrapping an arm around her neck, so she could get up slightly. Her arms snaked themselves around his shoulders, clinging to him tightly. He felt her heart hammering inside of her chest, and he had to admit his wasn't exactly going at a normal pace either. He pulled away slightly, gasping for breath before pressing his lips tenderly against hers again. This one was much longer, he was trying to convey every unspoken feeling and emotion of hurt, sadness, love, and affection that he had for her. "I love you so much," he mumbled against her lips before kissing her one last time. Seph froze, the arms that were around his neck slid down to his chest and pushed slightly. Understanding the clear message, he backed away, removing his lips from her immediately.

"What the hell's going on?" she demanded.

James backed up from the bed and walked over to the door. "Ask your friends to explain," he responded coolly before walking out of the room.

**SEPH:**

She looked around the room expectantly, trying to ignore how much her entire body was tingling from his electrifying kiss. She was wondering what was so strange about it. Maybe because she couldn't remember, but that had been their third kiss. The first being when he had a concussion on the pier in Florida, and the second being in her cabin maybe two hours before she'd left for the Christmas holidays. Something definitely attracted her to the dark haired son of Jupiter, she just didn't know what.

Deciding to leave speculation for another day, she laid her head back onto the pillows and listened to her friends explain how she'd went from being normal one second to drooling over James the next. According to them she'd kissed him as soon as she'd laid eyes on him, kissed him good night, held his hand constantly, and kissed him rather heatedly before she'd come around.

"I feel like such an idiot," she groaned, putting her head in her hands, "why would James want to kiss someone like me? He probably hates me now!"

She felt a hand on her shoulder. She lifted her head up and looked, it was Percy. "Seph, he doesn't hate you, believe me. He's just confused."

"Could have fooled me," she mumbled. "Why is everything so tense and complicated with him?"

"You can't understand," Zach said quietly. "He had everything that mattered snatched away from him and he's trying to prevent himself from letting it happen again."

"What does it have to do with me?" Seph demanded. Before anyone could say anything else, her vision flickered to a small room and she felt electric tremors ripping through her body. Opening her eyes, she was back in the infirmary and everyone was looking at her worriedly.

Kayla was leaning over her concernedly, checking her vitals. "You passed out again " Kayla informed her calmly.

Before Seph could say anything else, Kayla stuck a needle in her arm. Not five seconds later, her eyes rolled her eyes in the back of her head and she met blackness, passing out.

**MATT:**

He watched Seph go limp on the bed. And looked up at Kayla demandingly. "She'll be out for at least a day," the daughter of Apollo explained. "She needs the rest."

"I agree," Claire said. "Might have been nice to have warned her though."

Kayla shrugged, "Then we would have to have put up with her protests and refusals before finally holding her down and administering the dose."

"True," Percy mused. "I see your point. Alright, let's leave her alone. Anyone up for a friendly sparring match?"

"A sparring match with you is never friendly," Mark said gruffly, "but I'll take you up on the offer anyway."

Percy grinned at him and as a group, everyone walked out. They all went into the arena, and a pair of familiar blondes were fighting. Jason and Annabeth. Seconds after they arrived, a golden sword went flying into the air and Jason had his hands up, a bronze dagger pressed against his throat. Despite losing, the blonde son of Jupiter was grinning. He shook Annabeth's hand and said, "I'll get you one of these times."

Annabeth just smiled mutely at him before nodding. She dropped his hand and walked off to grab a towel and a bottle of water laying on an unused chair.

"So Matt," Zach asked curiously, actually surprising the son of Ares. Children of Hades were normally quiet. "Why don't you ever spar with anyone?"

Matt smiled and said simply, "I don't like using swords."

Zach blinked. "You're a son of Ares though..."

"I like to fight," he assured Zach. "Love it. But I fight with these," he gestured to his hands.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Claire talking to McKenna and laughing quietly before taking a quick look at the both of them. "They're talking about us," Matt informed Zach.

Zach grinned at him and nodded. "They talk about us probably as much as we talk about them."

Matt rubbed the back of his head and sighed deeply. "I imagine she's going to be cursing about me soon."

"Why?" Zach questioned, an eyebrow raised questioningly.

The son of Ares shrugged. "I've got a few plans..."

**WILL:**

The first two floors had turned up nothing. They'd scoured every inch of the interior. Marble floors were dark with dust and dirt. Doors, that were made out of wood, were either off their hinges, warped, or rotting. As he looked, he could see small footprints in the dust on the floor. A fresh spot where someone had cut their finger, a piece of t-shirt had ripped and come off, settling to the floor. It was quite obvious that they weren't alone, but Will just couldn't figure out where anyone else was.

Skylar was lurking around silently, her hand wrapped around her invisible blade invade of trouble. Her eyebrows knitted together in a small frown as she examined another staircase. So far there was nothing and Will had a feeling that they could scope every room from there to the ninth floor and they wouldn't find a thing. The people they were looking for were probably on the top. Knowing that she was ready to go to the next floor, Will allowed himself one last sweep of the second floor before walking toward Skylar.

He stepped in front of her, his bow in front of him, ready to fire off an arrow at any sign of danger. Slowly he stepped forward onto the carpeted stairs. He supposed the grey (probably used to be white) carpet was elegant when the hotel was open, but it was now a problem. As awesome as it was that their footsteps were absorbed by the flooring and no one could hear them, it also meant that someone could easily be ahead of them on the shady steps, arrow in their hands about to fire at them. Will .lose the element of surprise than have it used on him and Skylar.

Trying to keep his mind off of something he couldn't prevent, he tightened his grip around his weapon and scanned their surroundings with a practiced eye. Skylar may have been better at checking surrounds out but long range fighting wasn't her forte. Just like close up wasn't for him. He heard Skylar curse almost inaudibly behind him. He smirked slightly, knowing it was her hair. She'd had it pulled up in a ponytail, but he'd noticed it falling down over the past couple of hours, some of the shorter strands of dirty blonde hair hanging in her blue eyes. It must have finaly started annoying her.

He allowed himself a short glance back and saw, with a feeling of pride, that he was right. Gods it was awesome to know that he knew his girlfriend so well. Looking back up into the darkness and thinking of unpleasant and unknown scenarios that were flashing in his heads like horror films immediately sobered him up.

Slowly and step by agonizing step they made it to the top and to the third floor, which like the other two seemed to be completely deserted, busted windows letting in the sunlight, letting the entire hall be dimly lit from the open doors. Will's footsteps were quiet by practice, but he heard them loud and clear along with Skylar's echoing off the tile in the eerily quiet hall. He made it to the door nearest to him, and he was about to open it and check when he heard another pair of footsteps. These were much louder than Skylar's, which meant something larger than his girlfriend was on this floor, and they were confident enough to not even try to hide their footsteps.

Will's hand came aways from the door and he aimed his bow in the direction that he heard the noise. Hopefully whatever it was happened to be either A)gullible, B)friendly, or C) easy to kill. Will snorted to himself at the thought. He knew that he was too optimistic and that if he had any luck most of it wasn't good. The echoing footsteps got closer and Will figured what ever was making that noise was coming from the fourth floor and to the third. He was tempted to open the door they were in front of, hopefully find it empty, and pulling Skylar inside until the thing left, he quickly discarded the idea. It was better to kill whatever was on stairs so that it couldn't become a regret and pain for them down the road.

He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves. It was one of those moments where he missed being out with the entire group. As nice as it was being alone with Skylar outside of camp, having four children of the big three would have been nice, heck, at the moment he would have settled for one. His immediate instinct was to get Skylar out of danger, but as soon as he saw the monster's silhouette, he knew who it was and he knew that there was no way that either of them could fight her alone. He didn't really like their chances of fighting her together, especially when he saw that she had her scimitars back.

"She's got snakes for hair," Skylar muttered, "what a Medusa poser."

Will refrained from rolling his eyes and said, "I think Kampe is older..."

"Can you just give me one insult," Skylar snapped.

Will smiled at her impatience. "Love you too."

"Saying your last goodbyes, I see, demigods," the old jailer boomed.

Will could faintly smell the scent of the toxic poison on her blades. We are so dead. Will looked over at Skylar, I'm dying before you do, I won't be too late again.

"Now why would we be doing that?" Skylar asked. "I don't plan on going anywhere without Will."

"How confident of you," she hissed a laugh. Before either of them could respond, the monster lunged at them. The only thing that Will got was a lung full of poison. Gagging slightly, he jumped back his eyes watering. Skylar was beside him, he looked at her and she looked back both smiled at each other.

"Its been fun," she told him.

"Very," Will replied.

He pulled an arrow out of his quiver and fired it at the woman, it hit her in the shoulder. She roared and jumped at them again. Will grabbed an arrow from his quiver and jumped backward stumbling slightly. He landed on his back ungracefully and shot yet another arrow. This one hit her arm, causing her scimitar to slam into the wall. She howled in pain before yanking the blade out of the wall. The poison causing the wall to start crumbling. Skylar was standing by the opposite wall and looking between Will and Kampe. Kampe seemed to notice her hesitation, because she threw her scimitar at her. Skylar yelped and jumped out of the way, rolling to the floor. Will got to his feet and Kampe was running after him. He stumbled backward, pulling an arrow out, cursing the fact that arrows were so hard to use when his target was madly swinging a deadly sword at him. He looked around and saw a weak spot in the ceiling. He shot it, praying to Apollo that it would be right. Kampe managed to graze his skin and he felt the poison hit his skin.

He shouted in agony, immediately dropping to his knees. "WILL!" Skylar wailed, he saw her run forward but it was too late. He heard the ceiling cracking from the poison and his arrow. Suddenly a large chunk came down, hitting him and Kampe just before she could slash him with her blades. The last thing he remembered was Skylar screaming, "NO!" in defiance before he blacked out from a mixture of the pain and the poison attacking his body.

**I grammatically checked this twice... hopefully its good. Now I'm updating frequently, but I need reviews to keep me going. Now I was thinking about doing small rewards for reviewing... 18th reviewer (as long as it isn't Anon) gets a preview of the next chapter. 20th gets preview and a say in what happens next. Sound good?**

**Hope you liked the chapter! **


	5. The Worst Day Ever

**MCKENNA:**

"A quest?" McKenna said slowly, raking her fingers admittedly tangled black hair with a hand full of fingers. "For Daedalus?"

Chiron nodded. "Rachel issued a prophecy a few minutes ago."

"And you think I'm the one for this... why?" she demanded. "I mean, come on, I'm needed here! My sister is sick, stressed, and I'm pretty sure she's terrified! How can I morally leave?"

"You trust your friends, I imagine," the centaur said, looking at her piercingly, almost as if he was staring into her soul.

"With my life," the daughter of Poseidon confirmed without a second's hesitation.

"You and your fellow quest mate, Mr. Bruno, according to Rachel, need to go. I'm not going to make you but going against the Fates is a dangerous game to play. It always ends disastrously," he said, it was almost as if he was saying _no matter what you do, you're gonna lose something._

McKenna was silent. She didn't want to go in the first place, she was always weary about that damned Maze being up and running again. Now her sister was going through some kind of stress induced sickness, and that love dust that Lacey blew at her the night before caused a good amount of extra damage to her already fragile state, as soon as she came around she was already near hyperventilation, there was no telling how long it would take for her to get over that. As much as she hated it, she knew what she had to do.

"Fine," McKenna said finally, rubbing her face in her hands, as if she was trying to wake herself up and out of a bad dream. "I'll go. When do we need to leave?"

"I have to talk to Mr. Bruno first," Chiron said, "but the Labyrinth is so random that the sooner you start the better." Chiron looked at her sympathetically "Don't worry, McKenna, your sister's in good hands."

McKenna nodded mutely, "If you'll excuse me, I need to threaten-I mean talk to James..."

Chiron didn't say a word, he merely looked at her with a raised eyebrow and nodded as she walked out out of his office and out of the big house.

Her first guess looking for James turned out to be correct, which was a relief. He was in the infirmary, talking to Kayla quietly about Seph's condition. The daughter of Apollo said one last thing to James that McKenna couldn't hear before something on her wrist beeped. It was a bronze watch.

"I've gotta run," she said hurriedly. "Bad accident in the sword arena."

Without saying another word, the blonde grabbed a small green satchel with a red medical cross that was by the door and ran out. James looked over and gave McKenna a weak smile. McKenna looked at her friend and sighed. "I need to talk to you."

James crossed his arms, raised an eyebrow and said, "Well Seph's out, and we probably have a few minutes before Kayla comes back with the new patients, so what can I help you with?"

"I'm going to be leaving in a few hours," she admitted, looking down at the wooden floor, feeling as though she was failing her sister, "maybe even sooner. I've been issued a quest, its just me, Zach and Rachel."

"Alright," James said. "What does this have to do with me. I mean I'm excited for you, but you look like you ran all the way here, I don't think you'd do that unless there was something important that you wanted from me..."

"I know how you feel about my sister," McKenna replied, she looked at him apologetically, feeling bad about being so straightforward, but she just didn't have the time to beat around the bush. "I'm sorry. I know you prefer avoiding her, and every time you're around her its like a slap in the face. I know I'm asking a lot, but I also know that no one in the camp cares more about her than you do. Percy is a great brother, but he's not the right person for the job." McKenna stepper closer and put a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know how long I'll be gone and if I'm even coming back. I need you to take care of her."

"McKenna-" James sighed, only to be cut off.

"Watch out for her stress levels and her mental health. She's a ticking time bomb and I don't know what's going to happen once I'm not around to calm her down." she urged

"I don't-"

"Maybe it's time for you to take a leap of faith," McKenna said, cutting him off yet again. "Let down your walls enough to let her in again."

James scowled. "She doesn't want-"

"Don't even say what I think you're gonna say," she snapped. "I saw her kiss you before she left for Christmas."

"I don't know if I can," he sighed, finally caving, "I love her, you know that. But you don't understand how hard it was the first time to just trust her with so much of me. To let her in completely. To fall and to know that she's the only thing that's keeping me from getting hurt."

McKenna pulled him into a comforting hug. "I know its hard. Believe me with what I had growing up, trusting Zach was about the hardest thing I did, but I never regreted it, and now its as easy as breathing."

"The only reason why I moved so fast with her and did what I did is because there was always that really good chance that I would be dead the next day... or wake up and find out that the girl I loved was gone and she never knew how much she meant to me. The threat's still there, but not nearly as bad," he confided quietly.

"James," McKenna said kindly, "just think on it. Besides, it isn't like she's interested in anybody else around here. She looks up to you," McKenna smiled. "Even if you and her argue all the time. On the bottom bunk she keeps two pictures, one of her and her family, and the other is of the two of you outside of the archery field. The one where she's in front of you and you're holding her like you used to?"

James smiled as he remembered when that was taken. "She kept that? I thought she shredded it the next time we fought."

"She has feelings for you, man," McKenna shrugged, "are you really going to let her get away?"

James was silent and McKenna patted him on the back. "I know you miss her and I know that she wants to be closer to you." She smiled, "Besides, please don't let this go to your head, but you aren't a bad looking guy, how do you think she's gonna feel when you have girls looking at you giggling and flirting with you? Trust me, I've seen you over the summer when you've just finished a workout." She rolled her eyes, "Seph's self-esteem is low, more now than ever. She's gonna give up hope."

"It isn't like guys don't look at her," James snapped. "It isn't easy standing by and watching!"

"Somebody sounds territorial..." McKenna said, looking up at him with a faint smile and raised eyebrows.

"Fine, Suave," James sighed his cheeks tinted red, as he ran his hands through his already untidy hair. "I'll think on it."

"While you're thinking about that," McKenna said, pulling him down so that she was able to look at him better. "Think on a haircut. Between you and Matt... I swear I don't know which one of you is more frightened of scissors."

"Always have to tease me, don't you," James mumbled.

"Its my job," she replied.

James laughed weakly, before pulling her into a bonecrushing hug. "Now listen to me," he muttered. "You'd better bring your ass back here. If I don't hear from you in two weeks, I'm tying Seph up and I'm coming to look for you myself Seph needs her sister... and I need my sister too."

McKenna laughed and hugged him back just as tightly. "I intend to."

Letting him go, she looked at Seph and back at James. "Don't let her be alone when she wakes up."

"I won't," he replied. "Be safe."

"I will," she promised. She pecked him on the cheek in a show of sisterly affection before running out of the infirmary to get packed.

**MATT:**

He looked at his bag. It was filled with clothes, food, flashlights, first aid, money (both Godly and normal), and a picture of Claire. Everything that would get him through a couple weeks worth of travel. He would most likely leave out that night after curfew. Looking at his watch, he saw it was five in the afternoon. He had a few more hours left and he decided that he would spend them with Claire.

Not really knowing where to look, he just stepped out of the cabin and glanced around. He heard a threatening shout come from maybe ten cabins away. "Maybe I'll just tell Matt!"

Matt knew that voice. It was Claire (it was like she knew he was looking for her). Not even thinking twice about it, he ran toward the voice, shoving people, satyrs, and pets out of the way. What he saw was a close repeat of what caused him to finally ask Claire out. Only difference: Lenny didn't have his hand around Claire's throat.

"Is there a problem?" Matt demanded, slowly walking forward and wrapping a possessive arm around Claire's waist.

Lenny openly scowled him, not even bothering to hide his animosity. "Not at all." He turned to Claire and sneered, "I didn't know you trained him to come on command."

Matt let out a humorless laugh and said, "You're damn right I do. But its because I want to, its not something I'm trained to do."

"Then what are you trained to do?" Lenny asked tauntingly.

"Fight," Matt responded, "kill... protect loved ones from perverted creeps."

Leaning over, Matt pressed his lips to Claire's cheek, which was poking out slightly due to the smile that was on her face. "Has he touched you?" he breathed too low for Lenny to hear.

Claire just shook her head.

"Well," Matt said, looking at Lenny with a sarcastic smile, "I'm going to steal _my_ girlfriend if you don't mind."

Without waiting for a biting retort to come from the son of Eris, he dragged Claire away, smirking when she laid her head on chest. "Thanks," she sighed, "you're a lifesaver."

"He's just an ass," Matt shrugged. "And if he knows what's good for him, he'll stay away from you."

"What did I do to deserve someone as wonderful as you?" Claire questioned, making Matt's face heat up slightly.

"I think I should be the one asking that question," he informed her. They'd walked into the forest by that time, slowly walking into the trees, which made it seem as though it was hours later that five thirty.

"I never do anything," she sighed. "You've just changed me so much. And you spoil me like crazy. I've never met a son of Ares so loving."

He pressed a kiss to her temple, pulling her even closer to his side as they broke into a small clearing. It was the perfect spot to spend a few hours, the grass was lush and green, the stream trickled by sparking beautifully, reminding him of Claire's eyes, and it was peaceful, completely quiet. "We're all loving," he murmured to her. "You just don't see them around the right people... other than Pracilla Walters... I don't think she has a right person..."

He sat down, placing his back against the shadiest tree and pulled Claire down with him, adjusting her so that she was comfortably sitting in his lap. He placed a small kiss on her lips before pulling her against him. "What has you so affectionate?" she asked him suspiciously.

Matt smiled warmly at her and pressed another soft and lingering kiss on her lips, drawing back slightly to ask, "Don't you like me being like this?"

"Of course," she said, rolling her eyes at the apparent ridiculousness of the question. "But you never are. I'm not angry with you... today not an important day... I met you late June... our anniversary isn't until September... what's the occasion."

"There is no occasion, dear," he sighed. "I just wanted to be around you... and I do have a question."

Claire smiled softly, and shifted slightly so that she was looking directly at him, she wrapped her arms around his neck and brought their foreheads together. "What's the question?"

He took a deep breath, steeling his nerves, he exhaled loudly before asking, "Are you happy?"

Claire's smile faltered for a moment, making Matt's heart sink into a pool of ice. The next second, her lips were against his, softly kissing his worries away. When she pulled back, she had a tender and worried smile on her face. One of her arms came from around his neck and she gently stroked his scar with the back of her hand. He closed his eyes and leaned his head against the tree. Taking her hand off his old wound, cupped his chin in her hand. He opened his eyes and looked at her questioningly. She leaned in again kissing him softly, just as he started responding, she pulled away, pressing her forehead against his again.

"Of course I'm happy," she breathed, running her fingers lightly down his cheek. "Do I act like I'm unhappy? Do I make you unhappy? Am I doing something wrong, Matt?"

Matt blinked at her, her rapid questions finally registering in his brain. He found himself shaking his head, "Calm down, Claire. Please just calm down." She quit talking, and she wasn't shaking, but the look in her eyes made it perfectly clear that she wasn't calm. "You've done everything right. I just wanted to know. I wanted to make sure you really were. I just can't help but think that I'm failing you somehow, that I've let you down. I'll always think you're better off without me..."

"You're perfect," Claire told him, a half smile gracing her lips as she looked him in the eyes. "I know you have your faults, but it's what makes you who you are. I fell for you, issues and all. Nothing is going to change that. Nothing. You're mine and I don't want anyone else. Ever."

Matt managed a smile, thinking about what he was going to do that night, "I'm glad you feel that way."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**ZACH:**

Stumbling and tripping through eerie tunnels with his girlfriend wasn't his idea for a fun date. He may not have been a mind reader, but he seriously doubted that she was having fun either. They'd been walking for what felt like hours. Rachel Dare was with them, humming a random tune, she'd been the third person of the prophecy, which made sense considering the fact that only clear-sighted mortals could see the traps in the Labyrinth before anything disastrous could happen. So far they'd met no monsters, and had only came close to death twice. It must have been some kind of record."

"This place makes no sense," McKenna said, finally breaking the silence as they made their way into a muddy tunnel. There was a ceiling high above that showed off maybe three or four metal wired openings. It was raining, that much was obvious. As small droplets of water hit his head, he couldn't help but feel as though it was insult to injury. He was already having a bad day, he didn't want to be down in an underground tunnel, which, despite who he was, was making him flaustrophobic as hell. And now, to top off such a wonderful situation, it was quite literally raining on their little parade.

He didn't know if he wanted to laugh at the irony or scream from the frustration... possibly both. Looking over he saw that McKenna seemed to be only slightly more cheerful than him, he didn't know if that made him feel any better or not. What definitely didn't make him feel better was Rachel. He liked Rachel, she was pretty cool, and she was funny, but at that particular moment, she was much too cheerful, and for him that was a crime punishable by death.

"Its not supposed to make sense," Rachel said. "Well... it is, but to the artist."

"Artist?" Zach asked, turning his head so that he was looking at his red haired companion.

"Yeah," Rachel said, "this whole place is like a work of art."

"No offence, Rache," McKenna said, "but I find this whole place to be more of a pain in the ass."

'Okay,' Zach thought, 'maybe she is more unhappy about this than I am.'

They finally made it out of the muddy and rainy tunnel. The next room had a cement floor, dust and dirt coated ever inch, but it was still blessedly dry. Despite the fact that they had only been walking for what felt like a few hours, he still called for a rest. He didn't know when they'd see another spot as convenient for a breather as this. He shrugged to himself, feeling a certain degree of dry humor... Rachel probably did.

He saw McKenna grouchily sit against a wall, taking a small sip of water as she brushed the pieces of hair that'd managed to escape the confines of her ponytail out of her eyes.

Rachel was sitting quietly on the other side of the room, apparently wanting to give them some space. For the first time, Zach himself had to walk over and sit down beside his girlfriends, wrap a comforting arm around her shoulder and try to cheer her up. Normally it was the other way around. Needless to say that the situation made poor Zach feel extremely uncomfortable.

_1 for Zach, 1 for McKenna_.

**SEPH:**

She'd been falling in and out of consciousness for hours, never really lucid enough to alert anyone.

She'd come around once when James and McKenna had been in the room. It'd only been for a few seconds, but what she'd heard had confused her.

_"Maybe it's time for you to take a leap of faith," was what she'd woken up hearing McKenna say. "Let down your walls enough to let her in again!"_

_She could tell James was frowning by the sound of his voice, "She doesn't want-"_

_"Don't even say what I think you're gonna say," McKenna snapped. "I saw her kiss you before she left for Christmas."_

_Regardless of how conscious she was, she definitely able to figure out who they were talking about. And that made her even more confused if possible. Why were they talking about the kiss that they'd shared before Christmas? She was pretty sure that James had forgotten about that. When she'd gotten back from her family and to camp, he certainly acted as though he didn't remember it._

_"I don't know if I can," he sighed, finally caving, "I love her, you know that. But you don't understand how hard it was the first time to just trust her with so much of me. To let her in completely. To fall and to know that she's the only thing that's keeping me from getting hurt."_

_Seph was pretty sure she felt her heart freeze in her chest. Most of what he said confused her to no end, but she was pretty sure he'd just admitted that he had feelings for her... of all people, why would he tell McKenna that? All of the thoughts and embarrassment and confusion that were running through her head caused most of her strength to deplete, and she was pulled under the black veil of unconsciousness._

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Nightmares sucked. Most of the time she got the generic you've officially failed at life, and the consequences are your friends are going to be beheaded right before your eyes... this one was different.

_She was standing in the Olympian throne room. Beside her stood the rest of her friends... all but James. Their hands were chained to the floor, and none of the gods were. Anywhere to be seen. Somehow she knew that they were rotting in Tartarus. Standing in front of her were three people. All of them had helmets on their heads, and she couldn't tell who any of them were._

_The first person to take their helmet off and show their identity was a blonde haired blue eyed boy with a scowl on his face. As soon as he looked at Seph, he smiled wickedly and asked, "Are you ready for another injection?"_

_Seph wanted to inform him that she didn't recall ever being injected with anything by him, and she wasn't interested in starting anytime soon, but, of course, her voice doesn't work. The other two took there helmets off a second later. One was a taller girl with short black hair and grey eyes: Elizabeth. She wasn't entirely sure who the next person was, but she had the aura of a goddess. She was beautiful with long black hair, and blood red eyes. She smiled down at her as if contemplating the most gruesome act that she could accomplish with her. _

_"Bring the prisoner!" Oliver thundered._

_Suddenly a boy with matted black hair, and dressed in rags flew into the room, landing ungracefully on his stomach. He scrambled to his feet, and Seph gasped, even though she was sure no one else heard it. She'd never seen James in such a pitiful condition._

_He weakly walked over, Seph felt herself being forced onto her knees. Elizabeth hands him a sword and says, "Become my King, set your friends free, allow them to become soldiers to the cause! All you have to do is kill the sea spawn."_

_James was mute as he looked between Elizabeth and Seph, she closed her eyes tightly and muttered, "Do it."_

_She had no idea when her voice decided to turn back on again, but of course it was working when she was signing her own death certificate. James took a long look at Seph and shook his head. "I love you..."_

_The confession made Seph's face heat up despite the situation. Before she could protest, James took fje sword and swung at Elizabeth at it. Of course the blade did her no harm, she simply took a dagger out and stabbed him in the shoulder. He cried out in pain and fell to the floor. Suddenly, her chained were gone, all of her friends were no longer there and the rest of the Tyrants were gone. Seph barely noticed as she ran over to James. He'd lost too much blood, his face had lost all of its color, but he was still looking at her with his trademark mischievous smile. She pulled him up and held him, trying to stop the bleeding._

_"I killed you," he mumbled before, his eyes closed. "I'm sorry."_

_And just like that James was gone. Despite the strangeness of his last words, she felt herself crying hysterically, shaking him and screaming at him to wake up._

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Her eyes snapped open, and she could feel the salty water on her cheeks and eyes; she'd been crying in her sleep. That explained the shaky breaths and the sob that was wracking through her body. Before she could do anything else, she felt a pair of strong arms pull her out of bed and into the lap and warm embrace of a person.

She hugged whoever it was, hanging on for dear life. With her face buried in the nape of his neck, she let out a torrent of tears, soaking his shirt. "Shh," a voice said gently above her shaking form.

"McKenna," she managed to say trembling. "I need McKenna." The tears started falling again, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a death grip.

"Shh," the person said again, she felt a hand running through her hair comfortingly. "Calm down, Seph. McKenna can't be here right now."

Seph froze slightly, "J-James?"

"Yes, Seph," he said gently. "I'm here."

"You died," she found herself mumbling, trying to speak coherently. "Sh-she killed you."

James squeezed her tighter against him. "No, I'm here, you just had a nightmare. I'm fine."

She didn't know what to do, she just sat there for a moment, hugging him back just as tightly, one of her hands found it's way into his hair, she ran her fingers through it idly, trying to calm herself down.

Shaking slightly, she pulled away from him and looked at him in the eyes. He pulled one corner of his lips up slightly in a weak half smile. He brought his hand up and wiped a stray tear off her cheek with the pad of his thumb. She felt herself flush slightly as she remembered the dream and that conversation between James and McKenna before she passed out again. James silently looked at her, his gaze oddly soft. Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, he asked softly, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Seph mutely shook her head before realizing that she was practically straddling James to the chair. "I must be squishing you," she mumbled, moving off his lap and back onto the bed awkwardly. "Sorry."

James didn't respond right away, he was just looking at her oddly, as if he was physically restraining himself from doing something. The odd thought made her uncomfortable. She looked down at her crossed legs, which were now covered by a stark white sheet. She mumbled, "Why can't McKenna be here?"

"She left to go on an important quest with Zach and Rachel," James murmured. "She didn't want to leave you."

Seph tried to calm herself down. McKenna was gone on a quest, Skylar and Will were gone too. All of them were probably risking their lives while she was sitting safely in the infirmary. She felt her breathing start to pick up speed. Automatically she clenched her hands into fists, digging her fingernails painfully into her palms. The sharp pain caused her to snap out of her panicky mood. If she kept looking at James, she would end up going back into hysteria.

"Thank you... James," she said quietly. "But I... I think I need to be alone for a little while."

He nodded silently and stood up. When he looked at her, he didn't seem to be upset, quite the opposite. He looked at her with a smile, the normal amount of mischief in his eyes. "Alright, I'll see you later then."

Seph nodded. James turned around to go, but some strange force took Seph over and she grabbed his hand before he could take a single step. Getting on her knees, she pulled him down slightly and pressed her lips softly against his cheek. "Never knew you could be so sweet," she murmured in his ear.

James chuckled lightly. "I guess I'm just full of surprises. Now get some rest."

She laid back on the cot, resting her head on the comfortable pillow and pulling the sheet higher over her as he walked out.

She managed a smile despite how confused she was as she closed her eyes. She wasn't tired anymore. But maybe she could just rest her eyes and try to figure out her conflicting emotions about James.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**SAMUEL:**

"You're sure you have the plan all figured out?" Samuel asked Lenny for what probably was the dozenth time. He wanted to trust the son of Eris, but his mother was the goddess of discord, the fact didn't leave a trusting feeling in the air... to him anyways.

Lenny simply rolled his eyes. "Yes," he replied. "We both want revenge, right?"

"Yes," Samuel confirmed. Lenny apparently had a grudge with Seph from over a year ago, back in mid September, the daughter of Poseidon had broken his nose for hitting her sister. Samuel was looking for revenge on both of them... his reasons were fairly obvious.

"It's simple," Lenny said. "You go in, talk to Seph, whatever. Just make sure that as soon as you hear my voice and stomping footsteps, because you know Tempest will come running, that you're kissing her."

Samuel smirked and nodded. "Alright," Lenny said, "lets go!"

Samuel walked into the infirmary quietly. Seph was on the far corner, the newer patients were closer to the door, and all of them were passed out, resting for various injuries. He walked over and sat in the guest chair. He saw Seph open her eyes. As soon as she looked at him, she frowned and sat straight up. She opened her mouth and he figured that she was about to curse at him.

"Shh," Samuel said quickly, figuring that getting thrown out would throw the whole revenge plan down the tube. "I'm in here to apologize."

"Apologize?" she demanded incredulously. "After what you did, you want to apologize?"

"Look," Samuel lied, "I lost my cool, and I feel bad about it. Besides, the person in charge of my anger management said that this was supposed to help..."

She looked at him for a second distrustfully, before sighing in resignation. "Fine, I'm listening."

"You really are a pretty girl," he said, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. He saw her flush beet red and had to fight back a grin. "And when you rejected me it stung. I made you uncomfortable and I made a complete fool out of myself."

"I'm sorry if I hurt you," she mumbled. "Maybe I was being a bit too harsh..."

Samuel went for his most charming smile, marveling at how gullible this girl was, it was truly the most pathetic thing he'd ever seen... so manipulative. He reached out and placed his hand over hers, "Its alright, I understand."

"No, its not," she said guilt thick in her voice, "I was stressed and having a bad day, I shouldn't have rejected you because of that. You seem like a great guy, you didn't deserve me talking to you the way I did."

This was too easy. She grabbed the hand that was laying over hers and said, "I really am so sorry. I feel terrible."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Samuel said. He heard Lenny yelling something and there were the footsteps. Reaching over he cupped her cheek in his left hand and hurriedly leaned forward, kissing a shocked daughter of Poseidon. It was just in time. He heard the infirmary door slam open, but he didn't stop. He felt Seph trying to pull back, but he moved his other hand and kept her in place.

Seph put a hand on his shoulder and shoved forcefully until he pulled away, a grin on his face. James was standing in the door way, frozen in place, a look of shock, hurt, and horror on his face. He blinked and nodded, "I understand, Current." Immediately he took a step back and slammed the door shut behind him, loud enough for the other patients to wake up. As Samuel turned his head to face the obviously mortified Seph, something happened that he wasn't expecting.

His cheek stung where Seph backslapped him. The look in her eyes was scary and dangerous. He backed away as she got off the bed. "Do you have any idea what you've just done?" she screeched.

Samuel managed a smirk as he made it to the door. "Achieved my goal. And by the way he said, you're lips taste amazing... I don't know what kind of chapstick you use, but I wouldn't mind doing that again some time." He winked at her tauntingly, "You know where to find me whenever you're ready."

The comment froze her to her spot, and he strutted out of the building, feeling more accomplished than he had in years.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**SKYLAR:**

She'd never been more scared in her life as she was when she saw that section of roof fall on top of Will. And considering the fact that'd she'd almost died by being stabbed in the side by an icicle, that was really saying something. Immediately she ran over, terrified at what she might find. She could tell that Kampe was still alive, but thankfully the monster was subdued by a particularly large piece of ceiling. There was no telling for how long though. She saw her reptilian green hands twitching slightly. That spurred Skylar into immediate action.

With strength she didn't even know she possessed, she lifted chunks of debris off the ground, throwing them else where. She found a hand. Crying in relief, she pulled off another large piece of ceiling and there was an arm and stomach. Finally clearing the rest of him off, she saw that it was indeed Will, and he was out cold. His shirt was rapidly deteriorating from the poison, and his skin seemed to be blackening around the cut. There was blood trickling from a gash in his forehead and he was shivering despite the fact that it was June.

He was truly out of it. Skylar was terrified, but she swallowed her fear back and reached into her bag. Pulling out her canteen of nectar, she forced his mouth open and poured a few drops in. The reaction was almost instantaneous. His eyelids fluttered open weakly, and he looked at Skylar, his blue eyes glazed over, probably from the pain.

"Hey," she whispered gently running a shaking set of fingers through his thick, tangly, and now dusty hair, smiling even though she could feel warm tears spilling over her cheeks. "Everything's gonna be fine." She wiped them off her cheeks, figuring that she would be more believable if she wasn't crying.

She put an arm around his upper back and helped him into a sitting position, he leaned against her heavily and groaned slightly from pain. Skylar had to bite her lip to keep from crying again. "I'm so sorry baby, but we need to get to a safer location."

His breath hitched but he managed a stiff nod and she helped him stand on his feet while he leaned heavily on her, she was probably supporting ninety nine percent of his weight. Stumbling slightly, she made sure that both of their packs were secure before heading to the stairs.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

It took what felt like hours to make it to the next level. She kicked in the first door and dragged him to the bed after seeing that there were no threats of course. She laid him down gently, making sure that he was comfortable. Taking a deep breath to prepare herself for the horrific sight, she lifted his now deteriorated shirt off his head and looked at his side. As soon as she saw the blackening skin around it, she wanted cry. Will's breathing sounded so much more labored than she would have liked. Immediately she straightened back up and looked at him.

Taking his sweaty face into her hands, she forced him to look at her in the eyes. "Will," she said as gently and urgently as she could, "you've gotta tell me how to fix you!"

He shook his head and gave her a grim smile. "No cure, I'm a gonner."

"No!" Skylar screeched. "The hell you are! Now tell me what to do, damn it!"

"Kiss me?" Will asked.

Skylar felt herself internally breaking down, tears streamed out of her eyes. "Don't give up," she commanded. "There has to be something!"

"Please Skylar," Will said hoarsely. "Kiss me."

Gently, she leaned down and pressed her lips softly against his. He kissed her back weakly, probably using up the last dregs of strength he had. When she pulled away from him, and ran a hand through his hair, he feebly grabbed her other one. "I love you," he wheezed.

"I love you too," Skylar sniffled. "I love you so much. Please hang on, I'm going to try to get help."

"Alright," Will said hoarsely. "Please be safe."

"Anything for you," Skylar said shakily, kissing him on his forehead, cringing at how hot it was.

**Hello my wonderful readers! I asked SkylarRocaineDaughterofHermes how much you would hate me after this, lol. True troubles all around! Chapter six is in progress so no worries.**

**My 18th reviewer was Arwin Fred and 20th was Skyar oddly enough, lol. Soo... 25th preview and 27th preview and a request to what's gonna happen! Sound good? Oh and in the future if you love/hate me blame it all on Skylar! Just kidding. That's all I gotta say, I own nothing other than Seph, James, Matt, and Claire. Also most of the jerks... naturally.**


	6. Getting in Trouble Outside of Camp

**JAMES:**

He felt like frying someone, breaking their neck, and punching a hole through a thick wall, though he doubted that would be enough to release even a quarter of his pent up rage. He stormed into the sword arena; it was thankfully empty. He wouldn't have to wait to use a training dummy... not that he cared at that moment; he would have pushed Clarisse away from one if he had to and wouldn't have given a damn. He let out a torrent of curse words under his breath as he walked up to a training dummy. He stared at it darkly, taking his pocket knife out of his back pocket and pressing the button, making it expand into a sword. Once Voltage was in his hand, he immediately started, making short work of the first four armored training dummies. Breathing harshly, he stepped up to the fifth one, wondering if Seph and Samuel had gone back to whatever they'd been doing when he left.

Probably.

_Stab._ Gods, he couldn't believe that he'd actually considered taking McKenna's advice. _Hack._ He was such an idiot! _Slash._ He didn't know who he hated more, Samuel, Seph, or himself. _Kick._ He hated his life. _Punch._ He was pretty damned sure that the gods hated it too. _Decapitate._

He stepped forward to the next dummy, wryly wishing that Percy was there. Of all times, James felt a powerful enough rage to beat even the son of Poseidon, or at least give it one hell of a try. He heard the electricity crackling off his skin, and could feel his hair beginning to stand on end, if he didn't calm down, he was going to end up letting loose a torrent of lightning strikes that would drain his energy either enough to make him pass out for a few days or quite possibly kill him. At the moment he couldn't bring himself to care one way or the other.

He was so busy beating the stuffing (literally) out of the sixth training dummy that he didn't hear someone else enter. What he did hear was his name being called out.

Automatically, he spun around, his sword ready to impale any enemies. As soon as he saw who it was, he clicked the button on his sword again, causing it to turn back into a pocket knife. Stuffing it roughly in his back pocket, he turned so he was completely facing the intruder, of course she was in front of the door, the place he planned on getting to as soon as possible.

"What do you want, Current?" he asked, hostility laced in every syllable.

Seph seemed to be taken aback by how harsh his voice was. She didn't look at him, her eyes seemed to favor the floor as she spoke softly, sounding almost timid, "What's wrong, James?"

"Its Tempest to you," he snarled. "And nothing is wrong with me. I'm just damn peachy! Why don't you go back to your little boyfriend and leave me to train in peace?"

Seph didn't respond right away. She frowned at him and cocked her head to the side slightly, apparently trying to figure him out. "I don't have a boyfriend."

James glared at her and let out a cold and humorless laugh before aggressively saying, "That isn't what it looked like a few minutes ago!"

"Why do you care?" Seph shot back, the familiar anger beginning to flare in her eyes. "I don't know what me and a relationship with another guy, no matter how nonexistent it is, has to do with you!"

"Nothing," James informed her, his voice coldly indifferent. "I don't care."

"Then why the hell are you acting like this?" she demanded, her hands moving as she spoke, showing off how frustrated she was.

"I'm not acting like anything," James snarled heatedly. "I'm always like this, princess! What you see is what you get!"

"The hell it is and the hell you are," Seph snapped furiously.

"What," James said through clenched teeth stalking over so that they were less than a foot away from each other. "Is that supposed to mean?"

"I wish I knew," Seph exclaimed, looking as though she was seconds from ripping her long hair out from her scalp. "One minute you're cold and indifferent, I can't stand to be in the same room as you. The next you're the nicest person I know! The sweetest most wonderful and thoughtful guy on the face of the earth. I love being around you when you're like that, but you rarely are! I never know what to expect from you, no wonder I'm a nervous wreck."

"What're you trying to say?" he growled out his challenge.

The desperation and hurt vanished from Seph's eyes, only to be replaced by fiery anger and frustration. "You're the reason I'm like this, damn it!" she poked him harshly in the chest as she yelled. "I'm not stupid, Tempest, I know I'm sick! But please tell me: how does it feel to know that you're part of the reason that my nerves are always on end?"

That was a slap in the face. He glared at her, a feeling of betrayal washed over him as he came to a stunning realization. "You toyed with me," he said quietly, looking right at her. "You're a selfish bitch, did you know that?" the look on her face looked like genuine hurt, but he didn't believe it anymore. He didn't believe anything about her anymore. "You probably set this whole damned thing up! Told Lenny to come and get me. You have no idea how fast I ran when he said that there was something wrong with you." He gave another humorless laugh "You knew I would, though didn't you? I can't believe that I actually-"

"Loved me," Seph whispered, looking at the floor, tears streaming out of her eyes; her voice was escalating with every word that she uttered. "Can't believe that you actually loved someone as stupid as me. Well damn it, James, I can't believe it either!" She roughly gripped him by the collar of his shirt and shook him slightly. "I want to know what the hell I heard when you were talking to McKenna! When the hell did I wrench your heart out? Because I don't remember you ever opening up to me!" She looked up and glared at him, straight in the eyes. "Tell me about the first time." James remained silent, just glaring at her so confused. "I know you know what the hell I'm talking about. For the love of the gods, tell me now!"

He coldly grabbed her hands and pulled them off his shirt. After he let go of them, they fell to her side and he bent down slightly so he could look her straight in the eyes. With the most venom he'd ever managed in his tone, he said, "What did you hear?"

She remained silent, looking back at him, disgust written all over her face. Losing his patience, he grabbed her by the shoulders, shaking her slightly. "Damn it, Seph! Answer the question! What the hell did you hear!"

She didn't answer him with words. She shoved his hands off her shoulders and brought her fist forward, connecting with his jaw. He stumbled backward a few steps, cursing from the sharp pain. "Don't you touch me," she snapped, a fire blazing dangerously in her green eyes.

"And what," James said, finally fed up with her, taking a step closer, "are you going to do about it Current, if I do?"

"Something along the lines of kicking your ass," she snapped.

James smiled humorlessly at her and took yet another step forward, entering her personal space tauntingly, and just barely above a whisper, he said, "I'd like to see you try."

Seph jumped forward and swung her arm at him, he blocked the surprisingly powerful punch with his forearm just in time and pushed her away from him, stalking forward. She swung at him again, this time he caught her wrist, she tried to wrench it free, but failed. He smirked at her and that must have driven her over the edge. She elbowed him in the stomach and dove at him, causing the both of them to fall to the ground. Before she could do anything other than backslap him, he rolled over, pinning her body to the ground, and holding her wrists down beside her head.

"That was sloppy, Current," James breathed. "Way too sloppy."

The look she was giving him was a nasty one. He knew that he was going to have to restrain her until she calmed down, otherwise she would get up and try again, resulting in the same thing happening all over again. She was glaring daggers at him, squirming in vain, trying to get up. James had already lost his paper thin patience with her, "For the love of the gods, will you calm down! Just tell me what you heard!"

Seph frowned at him, remaining completely silent.

"This can't be comfortable for you," James reasoned. "But I can and will stay like this all night if required."

"McKenna saw us kiss before Christmas," Seph said quietly, she knew he was serious. A small blush came to her cheeks, making James want to smile despite the fact that he was pissed off. "You said that you love me and that you were afraid that if you let me back in I would hurt you."

"What is it?" James asked suddenly, realizing that something else was bothering her.

"What's what?" Seph demanded.

"Something else happened," he said. "Spill."

"I'm a selfish bitch," she snapped, her anger enough to lift her head slightly off the floor. "I only toy with you, why would you believe me?"

"Don't hand me that bullshit," James snarled impatiently. "If there's something I'm missing, then tell me, you stubborn brat!"

"You don't care, remember," she reminded him.

"I care about the truth!" James said heatedly.

She just remained silent, glaring coldly at him.

"You know," James growled, "you are the only person that I know that will piss off a son of Jupiter while he has you pinned down to the ground, completely helpless. I don't know whether you're extremely brave or extremely stupid."

"Stupid," she muttered.

James blinked, "What?"

"I'm stupid, alright!" Seph snapped. "I'm the dumbest person at camp! I'm gullible, I forgive way too easily, and I'm always on some kind of damned guilt trip! This is all my fault! Is that what you wanted to hear, Tempest?"

James felt his anger faltering slightly as he looked at her, confusion ripping through him. "What are you talking about?"

"He kissed me," Seph said, he saw a tear trailing down her cheek. "I didn't do anything. He told me he was sorry about what happened yesterday and he kissed me just as you walked in. It was a set up. He and Lenny were apparently in on it together."

James forgot how to breath as he looked at her. Guilt rushed through his entire being in waves. Immediately he rolled off her, sitting on the ground, staring off at a wall unseeingly. He hardly registered a stinging in his cheek where Seph slapped him again. He barely recognized himself anymore. He was head over heels in love with the girl, why was he treating her so badly?

He barely noticed the fact that Seph was about to storm out of the arena, when he heard his name being called by somebody that was obviously crying. "JAMES!"

James' head snapped up, he saw Skylar standing in the middle of the arena... well a misty image of her anyway. He was snapped out of his shocked numbness. "What's wrong?" he asked sharply.

He hardly noticed Seph walking back into the arena and standing beside him to look at Skylar better. "Its Will... I don't think he's gonna make it. I need your help!" Her image started flickering.

"We'll be there A.S.A.P," Seph said gently to Skylar.

Without so much as another word to each other, Seph and James both dashed out of the arena. Chiron was walking toward them worriedly, "I heard arguing," the centaur announced.

"It was us," James said. "Sorry, sir, but we have a problem."

"What?" Chiron inquired.

"Skylar and Will, they're in trouble," Seph said. "We've gotta help them!"

"It was a trap, child," Chiron said gravely. "They knew what they were going into. I'm afraid I cannot allow you of all people to go. Especially when McKenna has gone into the Maze."

Seph froze. "My sister is where?"

"On a quest," James said impatiently. "Chiron. I've gotta go. Those are my friends!"

"Very well, Mr. Tempest, you may go," Chiron nodded.

"What about me?" Seph demanded.

"You're the child of the prophecy," Chiron sighed. "It would be better for you to stay."

_She'd be safer at camp_, James thought, _that's better. She could handle Samuel and Lenny... right?_ James looked at her. Gods be didn't know what he would do with half of his time if he wasn't worrying about her.

"Chiron," Seph said exasperatedly, "I refuse to lie to you, but if you don't let me go, I _will_ sneak out. And I don't know why you're acting like this now, you're a firm believer that heroes need to follow their own path. Well this is my path!"

"Child, I know that," Chiron said, his tone made it clear that he was losing his patience. He frowned down at her, his head bending enough to where James could see a small bald spot forming in the middle of his head from the thinning hairs. If it would have been any other time, the son of Jupiter might have actually laughed. "The only reason why I'm so reluctant is because your sister, the only other daughter of Poseidon, that we know of so far, is gone on a dangerous quest. With you gone on a suicide mission and her gone, there is no assurance that the prophecy will carry on with the daughter of Poseidon fighting for our cause."

Seph remained silent, looking at him with a pained expression, so Chiron continued.

"I won't force you to stay here," the centuar assured her, "it is not my way. But if you do go, you know what you're risking. Its more then just your own life."

"I have to go," Seph said, conviction in her voice.

"No you don't," James growled. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he whirled her around, "this insane! Stay your stubborn ass here!"

Chiron cleared his throat and looked at James sharply, making it obvious that he didn't appreciate his use of profanities. James barely registered it. "You're important."

"There will be other children of Poseidon," Seph snapped. "McKenna _will_ come back," he saw a look of worry in her eyes. "And I'm not going there intent on dying!"

"You're sick!" James snapped. "What happens if you go into one of your panic attacks while we're fighting? Besides, you're important personally to people around here!"

"So are you," she threw back in his face. "You have friends just like me!"

"That's not important," James growled.

"The hell it isn't," Seph exclaimed.

Cue another cleared throat and sharp glance from Chiron.

"We don't have time for this!" Seph grumbled. "We need to go, _now_!"

James felt his eye twitching slightly from anger and annoyance. "We're taking a camp van, I imagine," his agitation making his voice as sharp as a knife. "I have a license."

Chiron nodded, "Very well, please try not to wreck this one."

James nodded curtly and ran off to get the car started. He wasn't looking forward to he trip. He had time to start the engine before Seph was sitting in the passenger's seat putting on her seatbelt... safety first. He rolled his eyes at the thought of the stupid slogan before backing out of the camp and onto the road.

**MATT:**

Sighing quietly, he got up from his bed. Pretending to be asleep for a couple of hours in a room full of snoring kids was annoying. He'd done it before though, and, if he made it back, he was sure he would do it again. Everything was dark, and as he grabbed his bag full of supplies, he was quietly thanking Clarisse for running the cabin like the military school she attended before she came the camp (at least he assumed she came from a military school), there wasn't any trash on the floor for him to worry about making noises with, and there weren't any pieces of clothing/stacks of weapons strewn about for him to not-so-gracefully trip over. Whether Clarisse knew it or not, she kept the cabin in perfect sneaking out condition. She probably did know, either she was sneaking out herself, or she was waiting for one of her least favorite siblings to sneak out and get caught and eaten...he wouldn't put it past her. He didn't mind Clarisse, she wasn't nice... neither was he. She was tough... so was he. She didn't have patience for idiots... his favorite feature about her. Which was why he didn't mind her. They both could watch Samuel try to sneak out and see a harpy come up behind him. Instead of saying anything to him, they'd both grab lawn chairs and a video camera to record the show. No patience for idiots.

The ADHD part of him wondered what time it was exactly, but he couldn't look at his watch, he was a bit too busy straining the rest of his senses to navigate his way through the dark. Once he got to the door, he smirked and opened it, the hinges were in perfect condition, not a single noise as it swung open. He crept down the stairs after carefully shutting the door and looked around, weary of patrolling harpies. He'd had run ins with those hags before... it resulted in a night spent in the forest. Reverting back to his old surviving conditions as a mercenary wasn't a favorable thing to do, especially when he wasn't prepared.

Seeing that the coast was clear, he silently crept to the back of the cabin, from there it was a straight shot into the forest. Taking a deep breath, he darted forward, running as fast as he could. Within a few minutes he'd made it.

His heart was pounding and his breathing was slightly sporadic, but other than the stitch in his side, which was fading by the time he stopped, he was fine. Smiling at the fact that no killer chicken ladies tried to eat him this time around, he began walking toward the back part of the forest. The tunnel for the Maze was there. As dangerous as the journey was, he couldn't help but wonder if he'd come in contact with Zach, McKenna, and Rachel. He seriously doubted it; the Labyrinth was huge and always moved around, switching and changing on it's own whim. The thoughts running through his head as he journeyed through the monster infested forest were not very pleasant ones. He remembered finding Chris Rodriguez in Phoenix. The boy had been raving mad, Matt cringed at the thought of turning like that, of not being able to recognize Claire after everything was said and done. The very idea made him uneasy.

Then he thought about Oliver. His friend was insane. Maybe not in the same sense as Chris, but Oliver's might be worse. He had been brainwashed and tortured, he didn't know that what he was doing was wrong. The boy that he'd gotten his information from (never learned the scumbag's name) told him that Elizabeth, whoever that was, had picked him out personally. All Matt knew was that he didn't want to see that girl anytime in his near future. He wasn't in the business of hurting women and children, but the girl was so far down on his bad side, he was thinking about making an exception.

The sound of a twig snapping brought him out of his thoughts. It was coming from somewhere to the right of him. Immediately he pulled his sword out of his scabbard and looked around carefully. He had twenty twenty vision, and he didn't see a thing. That didn't mean much, however, despite how great his vision was those hellhounds happened to be black. Black fur in the shadows meant that he wouldn't be able to see it even if it was really there. It wasn't a hellhound; the snapping sound was all wrong for something that big, its paw would have muffled some of it. This sound was clean and sharp through the warm air. Another thing: his instincts weren't screaming at him to run, despite him having his sword as a precaution, he didn't feel the least bit threatened. Deciding to follow his gut (it'd never steered him wrong before), he slowly began to walk forward again.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

He'd made it to the tunnel (it was a large hole really) without any sort of problems. Thankfully celestial bronze glowed slightly in the dark, so Matt didn't trip over anything as he lowered himself in. As soon as he was inside, he pulled out a flashlight and shined it in both directions. He had a bad feeling, and a tingling sensation on the back of his neck. He felt like something was following him. He couldn't dwell on that though, he had a job to do, he would face whatever it was when it came up. Though it was starting to make him nervous, hopefully it came up sooner rather than later.

Silence consumed him as he shined his light down the hall. Seeing that the other way was a dead end, he figured that he'd go right. Slowly he walked forward, never looking back. The maze was tricky enough without him getting himself distracted. It was hard though. His back was screaming at him to protect it, there was still something behind him, he knew it.

Thankfully he saw a door coming up, a perfect opportunity to give whatever was chasing him the slip. He opened the door, peaked around, and saw that it was empty. There were holes in the ceiling, shining down dim light on the room. He stepped through; he was about to shut the door, knowing full well the tunnel would change as soon as it shut completely. Something stopped him though. He wanted to know who was stalking him so closely, and as soon as he did, considering the fact that Claire was not present, he'd kick their ass so hard they wouldn't be able to remember their own name. He moved to the right of the small and wooden door, leaving it partially open. His back was pressed against the cement bricks and he quieted his breathing so the person would think he was gone. Ever so slightly, he bent down and rolled his flashlight across the room so it sounded like him leaving. He saw the door creep open and as soon as a wrist was in sight, he encased it in an iron grip and flung the person forward, gripping their throat in the process, and slamming them against the wall beside him as hard as he could. He brought a small pocket knife to their neck, and demanded in a venomously hostile voice, "What the hell do you want?" before he even stopped to register facial features.

When he realized who had been tracking him since he got into the forest, he was livid. He'd never been so angry.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**MCKENNA:**

The daughter of Poseidon felt like facepalming. Rachel was talking animatedly to Zach about some of the traps and monsters they'd faced in the Labyrinth from previous years. That normally would have been cool with McKenna (she wasn't really the jealous type or anything) but did they really have to talk while they were running from a freaking huge snake?

They were twisting through tunnels, jumping over gaps, and ducking as spikes came out of walls. You're probably wondering all of this for a snake? Well yes, all of it for a snake. And for good reason... its fangs (poisonous, of course) was maybe the size of McKenna... that might be too small of a comparison though. Its whole body took up the hallway and it seemed to be gaining on them impossibly fast. "An earthquake would be really nice now, you know!" Zach snapped at her.

Quite honestly, if McKenna could have stopped without being eaten, she might have backslapped him so hard that he would have fallen straight to Hades. "I know it would," McKenna informed him bitingly. "I'm not blessed with that ability! That's all Seph! I got stuck with hurricanes. So you can take that little order and shove it up your-"

"Guys!" Rachel exclaimed, "jump, now!"

Without hesitation, all three of them jumped and landed not so gracefully on the other side of a pit of greenish acid. Not saying a word about it, they all took off running again. "Why don't you try caving the roof in?" McKenna demanded.

"I did!" Zach snapped. "You didn't see all of the rocks and everything coming down on it?"

"Yeah," McKenna replied, following an order from Rachel to duck. A huge spike came across and probably would have rewarded her with much more than a new and unwanted hairdo. She let out a strangled yelp as she felt the wind from it come disturbingly close to her head.

She stumbled forward for a few steps before gaining her normal pace again, curses flying out of her mouth the entire time. "I didn't know it came from you, though," she said, finishing what she'd been trying to say before.

Before Zach could respond, Rachel gasped and did a strange jump in the air as she ran. "Turn left. NOW!"

They all did as commanded, there was a huge door. Not hesitating, Zach rammed it open and as a group the three of them dove in. The snake was too big to turn around, and its momentum was too great to stop in time to turn. McKenna didn't really want to stick around and play peak-a-boo with it, so she slammed the doors shut and leaned against them for a moment, breathing harshly. Her forehead shined with sweat, and her legs felt weak. If she didn't rest, she was going to collapse. She slid to the floor almost limply and tiredly looked around. They were in an arena of sorts. There were chains hanging from the roof, and bleacher-looking seats carved into the walls. It was like a mixture of an amphitheatre and an arena.

"Guys," McKenna said breathlessly, wiping some of the sweat off her forehead. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this place?"

"Because you should," Rachel responded. "I hope you two can fight. Because we have to pass through here to get to our destination."

That's when the realization of what this place was hit McKenna like a slap in the face. Percy had told her and Seph all about Antaeus.

**WILL:**

Pain. That was all he could think about as he laid on the old and musty bed. It was burning through his entire body. He couldn't yell, he couldn't move, he couldn't do anything to show how terrible it felt. He was forced to deal with his agony in silence. He felt Skylar placing we're rags on his head, he felt her hand squeezing his, and he could hear her sobs. It tore him to pieces to know that she had to hurt along with him. All he wanted to do was have enough energy to tell her to leave him. He didn't want her to see him like this. He wanted to smile as he felt her press a small kiss to his lips. Gods he loved her!

Finally he felt himself sink into blackness with that last thought. There was no pain and he figured he was im his way to the Elysium.

Nope.

The darkness was stripped away from his eyes and he saw that he was sitting in the passenger's side of a red convertable sports car with the top off. And to top it all off, it wasn't driving on the road... or any ground surfaces. It was flying. He looked over and saw a blonde guy with raybands covering his blue eyes. He grinned at Will and said, "How's it going, son."

Yep, son. This was his dad. The guy looked maybe five years older than him... if that.

"Not so good," Will sighed truthfully. "I'm dying."

"Not dying," Apollo corrected. "Just ill."

"W-what?" Will stammered.

"You're not dying," Apollo repeated. "You're my advisor."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Will asked.

"Its saving your life," Apollo shrugged.

"How long until I wake up then?" Will inquired.

"Quite a few hours," Apollo admitted, casting him an apologetic glance. "Your girlfriend is going to have to wait, and worry." Apollo grinned at Will and held out his fist, "She seems like a great girl. For a while there I was wondering if you were ever going to make a move on her."

Will found himself blushing furiously at the compliment, but he bumped fists with his father anyway. "What do I do until I wake up?"

Apollo shrugged. "You can do whatever you want. You can stay a while, its nice to have company sometimes. And I haven't really spent time with any of my children in quite a long time."

Will found himself smiling, "Sure thing. I think I'd like to spend some time with my dad."

**As requested by McKenna, my 27th reviewer (I swear this has been purely coincidental) Will won't die... I swear I wasn't gonna kill him anyway so don't kill me, lol. Book3 was my 25th. How about we do this every review with a '5' in it like 45 55 35 has a preview and every review with a '0' as in '40, 50, 60' gets a preview and a request. Sound good?**

**I wrote this chapter and its dramatic goodness all for you guys. Lol just wait til you see chapter seven!**

**I only own James, Matt, Claire, Seph, and Oliver.**


	7. Fun With Stalkers and Monsters

**MATT:**

His immediate reaction was to remove the knife from his visitor's throat, and loosen his hand. That didn't mean that he let them move so much as an inch from the wall. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he growled, Matt could feel himself shaking from rage.

The girl in front of him stared at him neutrally. She had a bit of a dazed look in her eyes, but he figured she would be fine. "Claire," he said, his voice was dangerously soft. "Why are you here?"

The daughter of Hermes tried vainly to squirm out of his grip. When she realized that there was no way to get around him without physically hurting him, she stopped moving. She leaned her head against the wall and glared at him, remaining silent.

"Damn it, Wilson, don't do this now," Matt groaned.

"Wilson?" Claire's voice came out cold and questioning. "So we're on a last name basis now, are we, Andrews?"

"Until you answer my question," Matt snapped, "you're damn right, we are."

"Why do you think?" Claire snapped right back. "Is your memory that short, or do you actually think I don't care about you?"

"This isn't about caring," Matt growled. "This is about me wanting to keep you safe."

"And what if I want to keep you safe," Claire countered irritably.

"Don't be stupid, Claire," Matt snarled in annoyance, "I don't need your protection!"

"And I don't need yours." The look in her eyes made him falter for a moment, actually scaring him slightly. His grip slackened fractionally, and Claire shoved him away from her. "I don't need it and I damn sure don't want it!"

"You need it," Matt snapped, "and you're gonna get it whether you like it or not!"

"Really?" Claire challenged.

"Yes," Matt confirmed. "You are. The next time there's an exit in this hellhole," he took a small step toward her, still giving her the space that she demanded. "You're getting out and carrying your happy ass back to camp!"

"And why," Claire snapped, taking a wobbly step forward, "do I need your protection?"

Matt noticed the uneven gait in her step and immediately walked forward, making sure that he was in arm's reach in case she fell. "You need it," Matt said harshly, "because the people I care about and the people I get close to have the tendency to get hurt."

"You're not the only one that cares!" She snapped. "I happen to give a damn about you!"

"No you don't!" Matt snapped, finally exclaiming his worst fear. "No one can possibly care about someone like me!"

Claire looked at him in shock. Hurt was slapped across her face and she trembled slightly, stumbling back a few steps as if he'd slapped her. Matt didn't care though, he couldn't stand acting any longer. The stress from everything was eating him alive. "You don't have to act anymore, Claire," he growled. "I understand, I'm a monster! I always will be. I'm _selfish_, I'm _cruel_, and I'm such an _idiot_! I made a mistake in thinking I could actually be a normal demigod and have a girlfriend. But its all so clear now! You were just trying to make me feel better. I'm only worth my skill in combat. That's all people care about!"

Claire took a shaky breath before looking up at him. Hurt was still in her face, but anger was too. "That's bullshit, Matt!"

"No it isn't," Matt snapped, "its the complete truth!"

"Are you really questioning the way I feel about you?" Claire said, her voice dangerously low.

"Not questioning it," Matt said coldly. "I don't believe it. No matter how much I care about you, no matter how much I adore you, it doesn't change anything. Anything at all..."

He didn't hear a response from Claire. That was good, maybe she'd finally stop denying it. Instead what happened was him being grabbed by the collar and slammed into the wall behind Claire. An arm at his throat so he couldn't move. Matt looked down at her. She was no longer angry. She was livid. "Now you listen to me," she growled, pressing the arm across his neck just a little more firmly, "I don't know _where_ you got those ideas, but you need to get _rid_ of them! I can understand if you don't want to be in a relationship with me, but to _deny_ the fact that I don't reciprocate your feelings..." she trailed off, apparently unable to finish her sentence. "Don't you _dare_ accuse me of dating you just for pity and protection! Do you even _care_ about me?"

Matt grabbed the arm that was on his neck, but before he could do anything, he felt his feet slide out from under him and he landed on the dirty ground with a loud thud. Claire put a foot on his chest and glared down at him. "Well Matt, do you?"

"Of course I care about you," Matt snapped. _What kind of stupid question was that?_

Claire frowned, "Then why are you saying these things?"

"I don't know," Matt sighed. "I just..."

He trailed off as Claire removed her foot from his chest and sat down against the wall. Lifting his head up, she placed it in her lap and started running her fingers through his hair. "Are you scared?" she murmured to him.

"What?" Matt demanded, trying to sit up, only to have Claire's hand over his chest, restraining him.

"Calm down," she commanded.

"What do you mean afraid?" Matt demanded hotly, not calming down in the least. He ignored her hand and got to his feet and started pacing. "I'm not afraid. I have nothing to be afraid of!" Okay that was a lie, she didn't have to know though.

Claire clambered to her feet, but Matt barely paid her any attention. Stress had started eating him alive, and he honestly didn't recognize himself anymore. This is what he got for getting angry at her. Guilt started eating at him from the bottom of his gut up to his heart. It wasn't as if he could just apologize after what had come out of his mouth.

He was so distracted that he didn't see Claire standing in front of him and he rammed right into her. Both of them went tumbling to the ground, automatically Matt twisted and held Claire close so he hit on his side and took the brunt of the impact. "You okay?" He groaned slightly.

"Fine," she said. "Just a bit dazed, you do everything forcefully don't you?"

"No," he said, "you always make bold statements, don't you?"

"Its in my nature," she said defensively, she pulled away from him and awkwardly got to her feet. Matt got up as well and looked at her closely. "What _is_ your problem?" She questioned.

"Nothing," Matt responded, unable to completely hide his frown.

"Matt," Claire sighed, walking slowly toward him. He looked at her and cursed himself, he couldn't look away. Her eyes seemed huge, and brighter than normal as if she was about to cry, her lower lip jutted out and it was trembling slightly. It sounded ridiculous, but gods, she could pull it off! He felt himself melting and when she put her hand on his cheek and whispered, "What's bothering you?"

He felt himself bend to her will. "I don't want to lose you," he muttered. "Some guy is going to come along one day and you're gonna realize that I'm nowhere good enough for you. And you're gonna realize that I'm so damn selfish for not letting you go."

"How many times," Claire asked, "do I have to tell you that I don't want anyone else?"

"I don't know, little girl," Matt mumbled. "How many?"

Claire embraced him tightly. "You need to realize how good of a person you are!" She pushed herself forward on her tip-toes and whispered in his ear, "And if you were trying to get rid of me, you're gonna have to do a lot better than that."

Matt just nodded.

"We should get going," Claire said finally, backing away from him. "Evans isn't gonna find himself."

Matt nodded but said, "You're still going back to camp."

Claire froze and walked over to him again, this time she gripped his face in her hands and pressed her lips against his firmly. Before Matt could do anything, she pulled away. "What was that?" she whispered.

"You're going to camp," Matt said again, seeing where she was headed with the conversation and not liking it one bit.

She leaned in and kissed him sweetly again, pulling away just as quickly. It was starting to make him dizzy. "I'm telling you, Matt," she sighed, "I'm having troubles hearing you."

"You're going back to camp," Matt repeated, hating how quickly his willpower was decreasing. "You're not arguing persuasively enough."

Yet another kiss, this one soft, slow and sweet. She allowed him to kiss her back this time, pulling herself as close to him as possible. When she pulled back, he could see her smiling at him. She knew she'd won. But as if she was sealing the deal, she gave him the puppy dog look again, and his will power completely and pathetically crumpled.

"Fine," Matt groaned. "Just stop looking at me like that! It makes it impossible to say no. Its not fair!"

Claire dropped the look and settled for her trademark smirk, "That's the idea."

"One last thing," he said, "_no unnecessary risks._ Do so and you'll want to face the monsters instead of me. Not even your puppy dog look will save you."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**JAMES:**

There was one word for the drive to Manhattan. _Tense_. It wasn't awkward between them, both were way too worried about Skylar and Will to think about their own personal problems. It would be hell later, but at that moment, they were fine. When they were almost there James vocalized something that he'd noticed. "Of all times, why haven't you had a panic attack now?"

Seph jumped slightly. It was the first time that the silence between them had been interrupted in the past few hours. He spared Seph a glance and saw that she was visibly jumpy, but that was expected. He felt jumpy, but he was just better at hiding his emotions. A neutral expression was set comfortably across his features, his eyebrow was raised up fractionally, displaying his curiosity.

She brushed a strand of hair behind her ears fidgeting slightly. She spoke quietly as if she was trying to hide the obvious tremor in her voice. "We're not sitting around in my cabin, pondering over what's happening to Skylar and Will. You're doing ninety five down a highway toward them."

"So," James said, looking at her. "You're not flipping out because I'm driving like a shot out of hell toward a hotel where our friends are fighting for their lives?"

"Its because I'm actually _doing_ something," she replied. "And I know I'm beautiful and all, but could you please watch the road before we crash."

James smirked at Seph's attitude. It was a comment that the old Seph would have made. He missed the old Seph, it was nice to known that she was there, even if it was deep down. James managed a grin in her direction, "Is that why you think I look at you?"

He kept his eyes on the road, but he could hear the smile in her voice. "Well if that isn't the reason," she inquired, amused, "then what is?"

"Maybe its because you're a weirdo," he said, making sure that the playful edge to his voice was clear.

"You're as strange as I am," Seph shot back, with a small laugh. The sound of her laughter caused a smile on his face, a full one, and he couldn't hide it.

"You look better like that," she observed.

James blinked, and looked over at her, a small trace of a smile on his face as he raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Look better like what?" he questioned.

"Smiling," she said simply. "Its something you never do."

"Sometimes there isn't a reason to," James muttered.

"There's always a reason to, like knowing you're alive," she shrugged.

James let out a small and slightly humorless laugh. "Sometimes that's been a reason for frowning.

He could feel her frown at him, but before he could say anything, they'd arrived in front of the hotel. At night it looked about as unwelcoming as he imagined Pluto's gates did. A gardener was severely needed because the weeds were waist length (probably worse for the shorter Seph), trees were everywhere, obscuring the view of the house almost completely save for the messed up tiles on the roof. Seph was beside him, looking up at the building silently, the expression on her face was a neutral one. She was getting better at hiding her emotions. James didn't know if he liked that or not.

"Let's go and help," she said and took a step forward.

James took a step with her and said, "Careful, we don't know what's in the grass."

Seph nodded mutely and both of them slowly made their way toward the large hotel. Nothing seemed to be in the grass. Both of them were fine when they got to the porch. James figured that it was just a worshipping point for Terra, it was unruly because that's what she wanted for the world. James pushed the doors open and they slowly walked in. There were tourches lit everywhere. The lobby was in serious disrepair, and with the darkness casting shadow everywhere the light didn't reach, it seemed as if they'd set foot into an old horror movie. Dusty tiles littered with cracks were everywhere, the counter seemed to be rotting, holes in the walls, and cracks running from floor to ceiling. James figured that the place was going to come down any minute. There was a large staircase in the center of the room. The steps seemed to be a cracked marble, shining dully where the dust hadn't completely covered.

Before either of them could do anything, they heard a loud thump and a shout. James immediately froze, the weapon in his hand clenched tightly as he went into a defensive stance, trying to keep Seph out of view. The daughter of Poseidon seemed to realize this because she sighed quietly and murmured, "I can take care of myself."

"Can we not do this right now?" James asked, his jaw clenched out of annoyance.

Seph remained silent and he could almost hear her rolling her eyes. There was no need to look.

He heard the sound of rapid footsteps padding through on the marble floors just out of sight on top of the stairs. Not two seconds later, a silhouette of a person came dashing down the stairs hurriedly. As soon as they saw him and Seph, the froze. "Thank gods you're here!" It was Skylar.

She stepped into view and James almost grimaced at the state of her. She was covered in dirt and what suspiciously looked like dried blood. Her hair seemed to be an incurable mess and her clothes seemed to be torn and ripped beyond repair. She was holding her left arm oddly, cradling it to her chest. "Ran into a few hellhounds on the way down," she said breathlessly. "But those are the least of your problems."

"How did you know we were here?" Seph asked, walked past James and over to take a closer look at Skylar. James walked past both of the girls and peered up the old staircase, trying to see past the opaque veil of darkness.

"I saw your car lights through a window," Skylar replied.

"Where's Will," James asked. "Is he still alive?"

He turned around and saw that Skylar looked stricken and Seph was glaring at him. "Have some tact, will ya?" she snapped.

James glared back, but after a moment sighed and said sorry, "How's he doing?"

"He's on the fourth floor," Skylar said. "He was poisoned. That's what your worst problem is!"

"What poisoned him?" James asked sharply.

The name that came out of her mouth gave a whole new feeling to the room, a tense one. "Kampe."

"Skylar," James said shakily, "please tell me you're joking. And that this is your idea of an elaborate prank."

The look on her face screamed otherwise. It was deathly serious. "We're still okay," Seph said, surprising James by sounding completely calm. "Skylar, _you're_ hurt."

"I'm fine," the daughter of Hermes snapped, stepping away from Seph as if the daughter of Poseidon was about to hit her.

"Can you get back to Will?" Seph asked calmly.

"Yeah," she replied. "Why?"

"Listen to me," Seph commanded. "Get back to him and keep the both of you safe, we'll take care of the jailer."

Skylar didn't move a muscle, she just looked at Seph as if she was assessing her sanity, gods did James feel her pain. "We'll be careful," Seph assured her.

"Skylar," James said softly, walking over to her, "We won't be taken by surprise," he put a comforting hand on her back, "we're _all_ going to make it out of here. I promise."

Skylar looked at the both of them for a moment before nodding. Before either of them could do anything, she pulled them both into a bone crushing hug. "Please be safe," she murmured.

"I plan on it," Seph replied quietly.

"I'll make sure of it," James remarked. He pulled away and looked straight at his friend and partner in crime, "you need to go."

Skylar nodded and sighed. "Good luck." She ran out of the room, quickly making it out of his sight.

James watched her go until he could no longer see her, then he looked at Seph seriously. "You're not planning anything stupid, are you?" he questioned.

"Do I ever?" she questioned.

"Yes," he replied with dry humor. "All the time."

Seph gave him a sharp _shut up_ look before she said. "She's lost the element of surprise. That should give us a little bit of an edge."

The reaction of her words was instantaneous. It was almost as if the Fates were in a rush to prove her wrong. A loud cracking sound came from directly above them on the ceiling. James didn't think twice about it as he rammed into Seph, using his control over the winds to push then further away from the offending noise. Both of them landed on the floor with a loud thud and two groans of discomfort from the rough landing, which involved James being slammed against the counter and Seph being slammed against his torso hard enough to knock the breath partially out of both of them.

At the same time that the two of them made their spectacular landings the roof caved in and a green reptilian woman with green skin and snakes for hair standing on top of the debris. In her hands were two curved swords that were quite literally dripping poison. The rancid smell, that either came from her or the blades, was strong even to James who was over twenty feet away.

Both he and Seph scrambled to their feet, trying their best to look as intimidating as possible. He figured it was pretty impossible to intimidate a woman who had snakes near her face every day, killed people with poison for fun, and guarded huge creatures for years. She gave them a cold smile but froze and looked at Seph, sniffing the air slightly.

"A sea spawn," she growled. "The last time I was alive a sea spawn was responsible for me being crushed with rocks!"

_Great_, James thought, _she already has a grudge against us! Damn it, Percy! _That angry thought was the last that he was able to have before the woman looked at him. The next was that he didn't want something that looked like that angry at him or Seph. Her top half was humanish... snakes for hair and big wings on her back, but humanish... the bottom half was all dragon. Pure black, sharp scales on her legs and a barbed tail that James was eying worriedly. He didn't have much time for eying anything really. Kampê jumped at them maybe half a second after she spoke.

James and Seph both jumped hurriedly out of the way, his heart already thumping hard at the look of the woman, but when. she turned toward them and a lion's head came to life where her two strange bodies fused together as one and roared, his heart started pounding into overdrive. This was going to be tougher than he thought... and that was saying something.

Seph really was planning something stupid. She jumped at the winged jailer and slashed her sword, the scimitar in the woman's right hand blocked the blow while the left one came swinging down at her from behind. James didn't think, he just allowed the wind to propel him forward at an unbelievably fast speed and blocked the harsh blow from reaching her neck... Kampe was trying to kill.

Both of them rolled out of the way and James scowled at Seph. "Be careful!"

Seph didn't respond, she just pushed her hair behind her ear and looked back at Kampe, who was crouching. James realized what she was about to do maybe a half a second before she did it. The insane woman took off for the air, and dove at them, both scimitars swinging in deadly arcs. James barely managed to deflect one of the swords, her surprising strength causing his arm to go slack and the curved sword coming dangerously close to his neck, he dropped slightly, jumping backwards narrowly dodging the blow. Looking over, he saw that Seph had rolled out of the way. Her head had hit a large piece of debris and she was curled up in a ball, clutching a bleeding wound, groaning slightly. Kampe seemed to notice as well.

"Not as strong as her brother, I see," she said laughingly.

James took that as a moment to attack, he got past her striking range, dodged a grizzly bear's snout and stabbed at her chest. It went through; the jailer roared in protest, and raised her arm ramming it against him, slapping him a good ten feet away and into the air. Severely dazed, he managed to soften his landing just in time.

The breath was still knocked out of him. He got to his feet anyway, the blood rushing to his head made him severely disoriented. Shaking himself out of his stupor, he managed to duck under another one of her blows. Looking over, he saw that Seph was on her feet again, the blood flow had mostly stopped but it was still there. The look in her eyes was a slightly glazed over one and she seemed completely dazed. James realized way too late that Kampe saw it too. He felt wind and heard the wings flapping behind him and within half a second, she had Seph by the throat.

James saw red, his breathing started picking up speed, and he was shaking slightly. "I hurt you," he said. "Leave her alone. You're grudge is with me."

"Why do you care?" Kampe inquired, smiling slightly. With her free hand, she pulled his sword out of her chest and held it against Seph's neck.

"I don't," he replied quickly, his face neutrally. "She's innocent. That's all."

"She's nothing to you?" Kampe asked, a smirk lighting up on her evil face as James nodded in confirmation. "You can swear that on the River Styx, spawn of Jupiter?"

James opened his mouth to say something, but his throat closed up as he processed her question. Kampe took his silence as an answer. "Naughty boy. You lied to me! Now tell me what she is to you before I break her weak little neck."

"Alright," James said, looking into Seph's eyes. She was gripping Kampe's wrist, trying to struggle free, but she still looked at him worriedly. "Just please don't hurt her. I... I love her, alright, I swear on the River Styx." Thunder sounded, "Just let her go."

Kampe laughed, and her grip on Seph's throat seemed to get even tighter. "Good to know I'm about to break you before I kill you!"

Kampe didn't have a chance to say another word, James jumped forward, the wind carrying him faster than he thought was particularly safe, he gripped Seph's arm and let lose a torrent of lightning strikes, making sure none of the electricity hit Seph. Kampe screeched and tried to let go of the daughter of Poseidon, but the electricity was high enough to keep her in place. James didn't stop until he didn't have enough energy to create another one. The jailer fell to the ground, twitching. He shoved Seph out of the way and pried his sword out of her hands. Straighting up, he brought his sword down over her head, decapitating her. Seconds later she was just dust on the ground, her swords from hell laying there, dully glinting on the ground. Too tired to do much else, he turned around and looked at Seph. She seemed fine, she was once again looking at him worriedly.

"James," she said, taking a step forward, and putting a hand on his forehead, "are you alright?"

James nodded tiredly, his breathing coming out in gasps. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Before he could do anything else, she darted forward and hugged him. He swore he could feel her heart thumping wildly. She was squeezing him hard enough, it was quite possible. "Seph," he murmured, "Will and Skylar need us."

She pulled away, shaking slightly but nodded. "Fourth floor..." she took a long look at James and said, "we don't know what's up there. You look awful. And I know you're tired. Why don't you stay down here and rest? It'll be dangerous for you to go up. You aren't alert."

"I'll be fine," he responded, trying to hide the exhaustion from his voice. "I just went a bit overboard with the electricity."

"I know," Seph replied gently. "You look dead on your feet."

"I'm stronger than you give me credit for," he grumbled.

"I give you all the credit in the world," she said gently. "That doesn't alter the fact that you're tired."

"You aren't going up there alone," he almost growled.

"Why?" Seph questioned.

"You know why," he sighed. "Don't ask stupid questions."

Sighing in exasperation, she finally gave in. "Fine. We don't have time to argue about this though. We need to go. I go first."

James nodded quickly in agreement. They looked at each other for another second, then Seph turned and started leading the way up the stairs. James followed and as quickly as they could, they made it to the first floor... clear. Second floor... clear. When they made it to the third floor, he noticed that right in the middle of the hall was a large piece of ceiling. "I'm willing to bet," James muttered, "that this is where they met Kampe."

"Me too," Seph replied. They slowly walked forward, past the debris and up the stairs. It was quite easy to find the room that Skylar was in. It was the first one on the hall. She was sitting on the bed beside a sickly looking Will.

As soon as Skylar saw them, she smiled in relief and got up, quickly giving them both bonecrushing hugs. "You made it!"

James nodded and looked past Skylar and over to Will. He was expecting so much worse. The son of Apollo looked almost as though he was sleeping peacefully. His breathing was seemingly normal and he wasn't pale... he was a bit sweaty but he could see the bandage that was most likely his wound from the doorway. "Are you sure he was hit by a scimitar?" James asked, walking past Skylar and over to Will's side, removing the bandage. There was only a small cut, there was already a scab covering the thin wound.

"Yeah," Skylar said. "I saw it myself. You should have seen him five hours ago. He told me he was as good as dead. He passed out and his skin was burning hot to the touch. Then maybe an hour before you showed up, his fever started going down, his wound seemed to be closing, and his breathing was coming easier."

"This is great," Seph murmured. She placed a hand gently on the son of Apollo's forehead and said, "He's still slightly warm, but its almost as if he has the flu now..."

"I don't know what's happening," Skylar muttered, "I just hope its a good thing."

"I'm sure it is," Seph said comfortingly. She rummaged through her side pocket and pulled out a baggie of ambrosia. "Here, I know you hurt your left arm."

Skylar smiled and took it, placing the godly food in her mouth. "Alright," Seph said, "I imagine you haven't found Avery yet."

"You're right," Skylar sighed. "He's probably all the way at the top. The problem is that Kampe isn't the only monster around here."

"Skylar, you come with me," Seph said, walking toward the door. "James, you watch Will."

James frowned and caught Seph's wrist before she could make it more than three steps. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She sighed loudly and turned around to look at him. Placing a placating hand on his chest, she looked up at him, her piercing green eyes staring straight into his blue ones. "James," she said firmly, "you're tired. You need to rest."

"There's time for that later," he snapped.

"There's time for that now," she said. "Just stay! Don't you trust me?"

"No," James snapped. "I really don't."

"Listen to me," she commanded, apparently not realizing that she already had one hundred percent of his attention. "I will be fine. Skylar has my back. But there is a seven year old named Avery, son of Demeter, and he is in trouble."

James' breath caught in his throat. That was his little brother. "A-Avery?"

"Yes," Seph said. "And you fighting with me is making him stay in the Tyrant's clutches longer."

James let her wrist go numbly and stared at her. "Damn it, Seph. I'm coming with you."

"No you're not," she snapped. "You're staying you here and protecting Will!"

"Seph-"

He was cut off by her wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him close enough to press her lips against his. James stood stalk still, too surprised to do much else. She pulled back quickly and looked him in the eyes yet again. "I'm just as confused as you are right now. So shut up and listen. I want you to be around for me to discuss this with when everything is over."

James didn't know what to say, so he just nodded dumbly.

"You're staying here and you're going to rest," she commanded. "Don't do anything stupid."

He was still to dumbstruck to say anything so he managed another nod and with that she let go of him and she and Skylar raced out of the room, slamming the deteriorating door shut behind them. James just stood there, his senses slowly returning. "That girl," he muttered to himself, "is going to be the death of me."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**ZACH:**

He groaned as he realized where they were. "Is it possible that Antaeus is still dead? I mean it was only four years ago."

"You really asked that?" McKenna inquired, looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "With our luck?"

It made sense. Their luck was terrible.

"Did someone call my name?" a deep voice rumbled.

Zach immediately tensed up and turned to stare intently in the direction of the noise. What he saw made his heart drop. There was a giant, he had to have been 15 feet tall and he was definitely fifteen different shades of ugly. His skin was tattooed with so many wave patterns that he didn't know what color he was actually supposed to be. His brown hair was matted down to his skull, he wore a loin cloth that seemed to have been washed a millennium ago. As he gave their group a cruel smile, Zach saw, with a certain degree of awe and disgust, that his teeth were tattooed in waves. One thing that Zach had to say was that he loved his dad.

"Hey," McKenna said standing up from her spot in front of the door. "How's it going?"

Zach seriously doubted that the giant was in the mood for small talk. But he welcomed her to try. McKenna tried for her best smile and took a step toward him.

"Excellent!" Antaeus cheered. "Finally, I have my promised fighting matches!"

McKenna faltered slightly in her smile and looked up at him with confusion. Zach frowned and looked over to where he went to the end of the room and sat on the top of a large throne that Zach hadn't noticed previously. Before anything else could be said, another cold voice came up. "These two will be perfect!"

Zach blinked and frowned in disgust. He knew that voice. The same tall girl with short black hair and cold grey eyes walked into the arena and smiled coldly at them. "Hello Zach, McKenna, Rachel."

"Elizabeth," her name came out as a growl from Zach's throat.

"Its a shame your friend, James, isn't here," she sighed. "He's got so much potential as a king!"

"Why would he choose you when he can have my sister?" McKenna demanded.

Elizabeth looked at McKenna in distaste. The look sent shivers down Zach's spine and he wasn't even the intended target. Her saw McKenna flinch slightly, but other than that she held her ground. "Are all daughters of Poseidon insolent brats that just don't know when to keep their mouths shut?"

"No," McKenna sighed. "They just don't like you."

"You broke my heart," the girl replied dryly. "And I can't wait to see you and your sister in hades... then again when we're finished, Melinoe will be in charge of death," a sinister smile appeared on her face, "I'll make sure you both get what you deserve."

McKenna stalked forward, muttering curses in ancient Greek under her breath. Zach jumped forward and gripped her shoulder, restraining her. "Hey! No one is going to Hades today and no one is replacing the gods anytime soon."

"You say that now, death spawn," Elizabeth growled. "Give it a few months."

"Whatever you ectoplasmic freak," Zach rolled his eyes, "you're just angry because you're too weird to get James. You brainwashed Oliver and even he doesn't like you!"

Elizabeth smiled coldly at him and looked at Antaeus. "I estimate that after these two, you'll have at least one more pair... then there will be people who will venture down to look for them... you'll have yourself entertained for quite a while."

"That is good," the giant rumbled, turning to face Elizabeth, still sitting in his throne. As Zach looked closer, he realized that the chair was made out of bones... human bones to be exact. Zach flinched at the thought of becoming a part of his already extensive collection. "I love entertainment! Sadly the last time I made an agreement with those foolish Titans, I ended up being bested by a mere fifteen hear old... a lowly brother of mine," Antaeus bared his teeth menacingly at the thought of Percy.

"Then you shall love watching the girl fight!" Elizabeth said. "This is a very close sister to Percy Jackson."

"Don't speak his name in my presence!" the giant thundered.

Elizabeth looked as though she was trying not to lose patience with Antaeus as she said, "Yes, sire."

The severely tattooed son of Poseidon seemed oblivious to her attitude as he began smiling again, showing off his messed up teeth. "I'm ready for a fight!"

"Wait," McKenna said, stepping forward slightly, shrugging off Zach's grip. "Who's fighting exactly?"

"You two are," Elizabeth told them, sounding more cheerful than he'd ever heard her... go figure.

"Woah," Zach snapped. "You can convince me to do a lot of things, but you're not going to get me to fight my girlfriend."

"Yes I am," Elizabeth replied. Before anyone could do anything else, she snapped her fingers. Through all three exits of the arena, armed soldiers immediately showed up, filling the room and sitting down on the bleacher looking seats. Most of them were jeering at them, but a few actually threw things at them like rocks and pieces of popcorn.

Zach frowned as a piece of a Snickers bar hit him. What were demigods doing eating junk food under ground? Zach angrily shoved the thought aside, cursing his ADHD. The entire thought process was irrelevant as hell.

"Surround me all you want," McKenna sneered at Elizabeth. "I actually care about the people I fight alongside. I'm not fighting him."

"I'm going to give you an easy choice," Elizabeth sighed. She snapped her fingers and two dracaenae pushed their way toward Elizabeth, a familiar frizzy redhead in their arms. Zach felt like kicking himself. How had he forgotten about Rachel? "You either show Antaeus a good time and fight to the death, or you friend here gets a souvenir from us... or we get one from her. However you would like to look at it."

McKenna was giving Elizabeth a death glare... it was clear that she learned well from Seph. Elizabeth responded to the look by pulling out a dagger made of regular metal and placed it against Rachel's throat. "I'm not bluffing," she assured them, "either you fight or I kill her myself and my army takes care of you two."

Zach felt himself shaking, but eventually decided on a specific course of action. He was at least going to save McKenna and Rachel. "One condition," Zach snapped.

"You aren't really in a position for bargaining," the daughter of Melinoe drawled, trailing the dagger lightly across Rachel's neck.

Zach flinched slightly, but held his ground. He figured that if he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to save anyone. "If that giant in a baby's diaper wants entertainment I sure am."

Elizabeth froze, the knife in her hand once again, the flat of the blade against Rachel's pale throat. Rachel was looking at them confusedly. Her face was a mask of calm but her eyes told a very different story. She was terrified and internally freaking out.

Elizabeth looked at Antaeus, who was looking back at her, his ugly face was contorted into a frown which made him look so much worse. "I want a fight, demigod," he growled. "And I want one now!"

Elizabeth looked as though she'd rather run him through with her dagger, not that it would do anything. "Yes, sire," she said stiffly. Turning back to Zach, she said, "I'm listening."

"The winner and Rachel go free," he said coolly. "Your army does not follow them."

Elizabeth was silent for a moment before nodding stiffly. "Deal."

"Swear on the River Styx" Zach snapped.

"Fine!" She said, not liking the fact that she was getting told what to do by so many people. "I swear on the River Styx!" A loud clap of thunder echoed through the room.

"Good girl," Zach said, smirking.

McKenna looked at him nervously as they faced each other. "What are you thinking?"

Zach figured he only had a few more minutes. "McKenna. You and Rachel are getting out of here." She opened her mouth to protest. "I'm hopefully gonna get out of here too," he said. "But if my plan backfires, you'd better leave."

McKenna was silent as she looked at Zach. "I don't like this," she finally said.

"We don't have a choice," he sighed. They began circling each other, weapons pointed forward. He looked her in the eyes and said, "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered.

He was silent, as he heard the giant yell, "Fight!"

Zach and McKenna just kept circling each other, looking for an opening. He only halfway heard the jeers from the army and barely registered the food and other objects that they were chucking at them. He comforted himself with the fact that he would probably be kicking their ass soon.

He purposely left his left side open and as he predicted, McKenna jumped at him with a halfhearted swing. Zach blocked it and retaliated with a swipe at her side. She nimbly dodged it and backed up a few steps. She analyzed his moves and stepped forward again, this time going for his neck, Zach ducked backward and swung his foot out, it connected with hers, and she fell to the ground with a oomph. He placed his sword at her neck but didn't make any move to do anything else. He looked up and saw that Antaeus was standing up, he held his hand out in a fist and his thumb pointed down. Zach wasn't stupid, he knew what that meant, but he just stepped back, his sword leaving her body completely.

"This means kill her, demigod," Antaeus growled.

Zach just shrugged and looked at him, "I don't want to fight her. She's too easy. Not enough of a challenge."

"Really," Antaeus said, "she does seem pathetic."

Zach had to bite back an insult and smile back up at him. "She is."

"Then why is she your... um, girlfriend?" the giant inquired.

"She's pretty," Zach shrugged, hoping to the gods above that McKenna knew that he was lying.

He could tell that Elizabeth saw through his lies, but for some reason she was reluctant to say anything. Probably thinking that the giant (who didn't seem very bright) would favor Zach rather than her.

"So," Antaeus said, "who do you think would be a worthy opponent?"

"I would love to try fighting you," Zach shrugged.

"Me," Antaeus questioned. "Are you sure, demigod? I am not someone you want to fight."

"Quite sure," Zach assure him.

He could tell that Antaeus wanted to tell him 'no way, buddy,' but he couldn't without looking weak in front of the army. "Very well," he growled, getting up and jumping from his platformed seat, ten feet to the ground. Zach had the privilege of knowing that the loin cloth smelled the same as it looked... either that or it was the giant. No wonder Elizabeth's nose had been scrunched up. "You are asking for death..." he trailed off, apparently asking for the name of the person he was about to kill.

"Zach Bruno," he said.

"You are asking for death, Zach Bruno," Antaeus said.

"It'll be okay," Zach said. "I'm ready."

**I hoped you liked the chapter! Longest one yet! I went over this bad boy twice looking for typos. I think I found them all... I hope. Please tell me what you think and let me know if there is something that you want me to do, I always take my reviews into serious consideration.**


	8. Controlling Mortals and Breaking Deals

**SEPH:**

She and Skylar slowly crept forward. The darkness was broken by the dim light of flickering torches, but other than that all Seph had to rely on was her nonexistent night vision. The shadows that moved with every flicker of the flaming torches made her feel as though something was going to jump at her any moment. She honestly felt as though she had stepped into one of Percy's video games. She'd taken the lead. Her body was tensed and completely rigid; she was not letting her guard down for one moment. Skylar was behind her, watching the rear, her dagger firmly in her hand. Seph guessed it was anyway, it was hard to tell when you couldn't see it.

Seph was sure that something was coming up, she could feel it. She'd rather it come up and confront her, waiting around for it to attack was killing her. The silence was the loudest that she'd ever heard. The only sound that was around was their shallow breathing and soft footsteps that were barely audible from the marble flooring.

"Seph," Skylar said suddenly while they were on the ninth floor. "Light in the room right behind us."

"You sure?" Seph asked, casting one last searching glance at the hall around her before turning to look at the door that Skylar was staring intently at.

"As sure as I can be," she said, gesturing to the flickering light that was at the bottom crack.

Seph nodded. "Shall we?"

Skylar nodded mutely and Seph stepped forward. "_Ready_?" she mouthed.

Skylar managed a smirk and nodded yet again, a hand was tensed at her side, probably where her dagger was. Seph turned around and faced the door. Without the slightest hesitation, she took a step forward and planted the flat of her foot on the door with as much force as she could muster. Needless to say the aged wood and old hinges folded pathetically under the blow. The door flew backward and landed on the floor. Seph jumped inside right after Skylar.

The room was full of teenagers, they were all seated in chairs or on the floor, a roaring fireplace lighting them up and casting eerie shadows everywhere.

"Who the hell are you?" Seph snapped. They didn't give off the air of demigods or monsters. Just as mortals who thought that they were actually badasses.

A beautiful woman with long poker-straight black hair and startlingly deep red eyes stood up from an old and plush couch in the back. She was in a long and rather lowcut black dress, the cloth was jagged at the ends of the arms and where the bottom was at her ankles,making her seem as though she was dressed in spikes. The stiletto high heels didn't help with the spike look, it made her seem as though if they got too close they would die automatically. That explained the reason that the other teenagers weren't anywhere near her.

The cold smile that she gave them showed off two rows of slightly pointed teeth. Everything about this woman screamed bad news. Seph didn't know who she was, she didn't know her name, she didn't know anything, and she already knew that she didn't like her. "Hello, my dears," her voice reminded Seph of a purring cat. "I was wondering when you'd make it to our little party."

"Who are you?" Skylar asked, from her place beside Seph. Her stance was in a defensive one, ready to fight off anything if it decided to come their way. Seph, on the other hand took a neutral stance as she examined the beautiful woman more closely, taking in her pale complexion and the coldness that she gave off in large waves. Honestly the woman reminded her of a vampire.

"Ah," Vampire Lady said, "straight to the point, are we?"

"We tend to be that way," Seph informed her, before sarcastically adding, "I apologize for any rudeness."

"Oh," the pale woman said, a smiled set in place, showing off her stark white, pointed teeth. "This one has an attitude."

"I've had a long day," Seph snapped. "Just give me the kid and let us leave. No one has to get hurt."

"Allow me to answer Skylar's question first," the woman said. "I am Ate, the goddess of evil and misfortune."

"If you're a goddess," Skylar said slowly, "then what are you doing here?"

"Because that fool, Zeus, banished me from Olympus just because I brought some bad fortunes upon his precious Heracles!" Ate's smile disappeared and a scowl took its place.

"How did you know who we were?" Seph demanded.

"That is a question I cannot answer," Ate said carelessly.

Seph frowned and looked around, the teenagers in the room had all gotten up. Ten in all, seven guys, three girls.

"And as much fun as this little chat has been," Ate sighed, brushing a stray lock of straight hair behind her ear, "I really must be going, I have a child to see. But first," she smiled a very cold smile, "I think I can watch this show."

Seph frowned, wondering if Ate had truly lost her mind. After a moment she realized what the goddess was talking about. The show was their deaths. "Get them," she purred.

Seph didn't have time to think as a girl a few years younger than her came running at her. She automatically swung her sword at the girl, which simply went straight through her. She had to dodge out of the way of the metal knife that she wielded. "I knew it!" Seph exclaimed.

"What?" Skylar asked, judo throwing a guy maybe twice her size as if it were nothing... sometimes it scared Seph how awesome she was.

"They're mortal!" She groaned, throwing her sword aside in disgust. She'd get it later. Two more of the teenagers jumped at her, two guys, one was large with enough muscles to make Ares proud, the other was scrawny but had a large knife. Three on one... terribly fair. She ducked under the knife of scrawny guy and kicked a foot out, taking the girl down. The big guy... she was going to call him Hulk... Hulk was walking forward along with Scrawny, she ducked and rolled as Hulk brought a fist down toward her head and Scrawny slashed a knife at her neck. She came to her feet behind them and knocked into someone else. Automatically she threw her elbow back, hearing something that felt like a nose crack under the blow. Not bothering to look at her handy work, she darted forward and caught Scrawny's wrist before he could do anything. She twisted it as hard as she could, bringing it behind his back and pushing up. He yelped in pain and the blade clattered to the ground. Hulk was coming after her from the side and she saw something else from a dim reflection in a partially shattered window. Without hesitation, she spun slightly, bringing her elbow down on Scrawny's collarbone and bringing her leg out to connect with Hulk's stomach. She heard the breath fly out of his mouth at the same time that Scrawny hit the floor.

As she made a one eighty to face her new attacker, but just as she was about to fend off an attack from him she felt something cold and sharp implant itself into her back. She took in a sharp breath and gave a loud cry of pain. Hulk was still behind her... apparently he'd found Scrawny's blade. Swallowing back bile that came up due to the pain, she turned around and placed a kick in his face, sending him tumbling back to the ground, she saw blood shoot from his mouth along with a few broken teeth. _He's gonna wake up with a headache,_ she thought with some satisfaction as she turned back around just in time to catch the hand of her next opponent. He was tall and thin, she couldn't see much about him because he had a hood that hid his face from view. Immediately she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she brought her knee forward and it made contact with his stomach. That sent him doubling over. Taking her elbow, she bent down slightly and rammed it into his collarbone, causing him to yell in pain as he dropped to the ground.

Groaning, she straightened up and looked around. Two other people were still standing in the room, Ate and Skylar. Staggering slightly, Seph stumbled to her sword and crouched down to pick it up. Getting to her feet painfully fast, she looked at Ate again, her sword pointed at the goddess. "Why humans?" Seph snapped.

"Oh, my dear," Ate said, cackling slightly, "you are always so reluctant to hurt mortals, and you'll never kill them! It slows you down. Look at your shoulder!"

"H-how did you get them to work for you?" Seph said, stumbling slightly over the words as her back started hurting impossibly more, the warmth of her own blood trailing down her back made her nauseated.

"I simply planted a small suggestion into their weak minds," she said shrugging as if it were nothing. "I'd do the same to you, but it seems as though you are under the protection of the Fates at the moment and cannot be controlled." She smiled nastily at them and said, "Not to worry. There's always Avery!" with that as her final farewell, she disappeared in a flash of darkness, leaving a biting cold in the air despite the warm air that was pulsing through the cracked window.

"That woman," Seph groaned, "is psychotic. What did she mean protected by the fates?"

"I don't know," Skylar admitted softly. "But we need to go."

Seph managed a nod, "I agree." The daughter of Poseidon turned around and she was about to head for the door when she heard Skylar take a sharp breath. "Seph, sit down. Now."

"What?" Seph demanded. "We've gotta go!"

"You have a knife sticking out of your back!" Skylar snapped. "I can see the blood leaking through your shirt!"

Seph groaned, a sound that carried quite a long way in the still air. "What if they wake up?" Seph asked, already sitting down, giving into the pain.

"Did you see how hard we hit them?" Skylar demanded. "Even that burly one that you took care of is gonna be out for a few hours."

"That burly one took care of me," she muttered.

She winced when the blade shifted slightly in her back as Skylar put her hand on it. "It's gonna hurt," Skylar said in a apologetic voice.

Seph nodded curtly, "Just do it." She bit into her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood as Skylar began to pull the offending blade from her shoulder. She couldn't stop herself. A loud shout of pain tore through her traitorous lips, echoing off the walls of the room, probably spreading down the silent hallway and through various floors, attracting Zeus knew what else in the hotel of horrors.

Breathing heavily, she hunched over after the blade was removed, allowing Skylar easier access to the wound for pouring nectar in it; it was also a convenient way for her muscles to completely give out from the pain. As Skylar was finishing the final touches on the cut, Seph heard something that sounded like a growl. Her head snapped forward and all she saw in the doorway was a set of red eyes. Before she had the time do anything other than shoot violent curses out from her mouth, the hound yelped and disintergrated.

**ZACH:**

As Antaeus stood up before him, Zach could already feel most of his body hurting where the monster would most likely administer his hits. Considering the fact that his arms were the length of Zach's body and hands were the size of Zach's head, with rippling muscles all around, he figured being punched would equivalent being hit with a sludge hammer, and being tackled by him would be like an eighteen wheeler running him over. Needless to say, Zach wanted to avoid any contact.

McKenna and Rachel were standing beside Elizabeth, looking at him worriedly... so much for them having confidence in him. Two demigods were on either side of McKenna since she kept trying to get down to him.

"Alright," Zach said, cracking his neck slightly. "Let's get this over with."

Antaeus gave him an evil smile and before Zach could return one in kind, he jumped forward. Zach dropped to the ground as the giant soared over him, its long arms grazing the very tips of his hair as Zach rolled away just in time. Getting to his feet, his sword in hand, he refused to so much as blink as they circled each other. It felt weird and completely foreign to fight someone without a weapon, but as he looked at the giant's hand, the feeling suddenly flew out of his head. Those hands could probably tare him apart with just a snatch of their owner's wrist.

"Good reflexes, fleshling," he commended. "Not enough to save you."

He jumped at him again, his right hand encased in a fist while his left hand was enclosed around it. Zach realized that it was meant for his head as soon as the giant's feet were in the air. He jumped forward, bringing his sword around in an arc, cutting straight through his stomach. The giant howled in pain and as soon as he hit the ground his skin started filling with dirt, quickly healing the wound before much ichor could flow out. Zach didn't have time for a breather because the giant roared and ran at him, Zach tried to jump out of the way but his incredibly long arms made it impossibly. The son of Hades felt a staggering force contact with his ribs, he felt them crack under the pressure. He would have said a few curses, but the momentum of the hit sent him backward, completely breathless.

He landed on the ground with a sickeningly loud thud and tried to stifle a groan. He cursed and stumbled to his feet, only to have the giant waiting for him. He found himself being picked up like a rag doll and flung into the nearest wall. Yet another sickening noise, but this one was his leg cracking. Groaning in pain as his now broken leg hit the ground he watched as the giant raised his hands up to the crowd gloatingly from the center of the Arena. "Stupid fleshling dares to challenge the greatest wrestler ever! I am victorious!"

Zach gripped his sword. "Hey, jackass! You're forgetting something!"

The monster looked at him confusedly, "What?"

"I'm a son of Hades," he said simply. With that he stuck his sword into the ground. A crack started spreading toward him, cutting jaggedly into the earth.

Antaeus looked at the growing mark with wide eyes, "No!" Before the huge son of Poseidon could do anything else, the ground underneath him opened up into a huge gaping hole. He had time to say half a curse word in Greek before he dropped. As the crack began to close, he saw that McKenna had thrown the guards off her and she was rushing toward him.

"Hey, Zach," she whispered as she made it to him, getting on her knees to get closer to him. She brushed the hair out of his eyed and he saw her smiling worriedly. "Everything's gonna be okay."

Zach nodded absently at her statement before collecting his thoughts and looking at the daughter of Melinoe. "Elizabeth!" he snapped. "I hold you to your oath."

Elizabeth was smiling at him as if she had just won the lottery. "You see, Zach, technically you didn't win."

He felt his heart sink. "What are you talking about?"

"The agreement was for to fight McKenna. Since you didn't kill her, you didn't finish the fight," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "No one won."

Zach felt his heart plummet into his stomach, which had turned into a pool of ice. But before he could do anything else he felt something hard hit the side of his head. His vision went black and all he knew was darkness.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**CLAIRE:**

She and Matt had been carefully walking through the maze in silence for the past three hours or so. The tunnels had went from beautiful Greek and Roman art gracing the walls, to graffiti on bricks, and everything in between. Nothing seemed to make sense. But gods, Claire would have traded another six hours of wandering around aimlessly than what actually happened next.

They made it to a large circular room. Torches lined the walls, for some strange reason they hadn't ran out of fule in the past few thousand years or so. Columns jutted out almost like speed bumps in the brownish brick walls. Small platforms were at their bases, making them seem almost like chairs. Sighing quietly, Claire murmured, "Break."

Matt nodded and collapsed onto the nearest pillar, taking a deep breath, leaning his head back against the stone, closing his eyes. "Quitting the mercenary business might have been a bad idea," he murmured.

Claire's head snapped in his direction and saw that he was looking at her tiredly. She raised a questioning eyebrow. "How is quitting that awful job a bad thing?"

Matt looked at her, his eyebrows knitted together as he frowned slightly. "That awful job kept me alive for six years."

Claire didn't frown back, she just sat beside him, her back against the pillar. "At the cost of what? Half your sanity? All of your self-respect? Matt, you hate yourself because of it."

Matt remained silent. That was the reason why they normally didn't bring up his past. Claire's was open for discussion... nothing much there. Two younger brothers and a baby sister. Mother, step father... completely normal. Matt's on the other hand... painful. "I didn't mean it in that sense," he finally said, sighing as he placed his head in his hands, rubbing his eyes. "I mean that since I did, I've gotten out of shape. Camp doesn't cut it."

"Why?" Claire questioned. "Because you don't have people trying to kill you at any given moment?"

Matt snorted. "That, and I was always moving and running around... yes most of the time it was for my life. I don't do that anymore."

"You sound like you enjoyed it," Claire mused.

"That's not something anyone should enjoy unless you're deranged," Matt said softly.

"Let's drop it," Claire said finally after a few moments, "I'm tired, you're tired, I say we take a few hours rest before continuing."

Matt nodded mutely and got up. He pulled his pack up and got a sleeping bag out. Setting it down on the floor, he turned around and looked at Claire. "Come on," he said tiredly.

Claire saw what he was doing. "No, Matt." she protested. "I'll keep watch. You sleep in your sleeping bag."

"Come here anyway," he said.

Claire looked at him skeptically, but pushed herself to her tired feet all the same. When she got to him, he had a small smile on his face as he grabbed her by the waist and flopped down the the ground with her by his side, both comfortably on the sleeping bag. "I told you I was going to keep watch," Claire protested.

"I know," Matt said, his voice sounding tired as he pulled her closer and rolled on his side, so his face was buried into the crook of her neck. "But I'm sure you can do it from here."

Claire couldn't stop the smile that came to her face. As she looked around, the room, she brought one hand around and started idly running her fingers through it.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

It was a few hours later when Claire woke Matt up from his sleep. Nothing interesting had come up and she was looking forward to getting some shut eye herself. She watched with amusement as Matt looked at her tiredly. "My turn to sleep," she murmured.

Immediately Matt blinked hard and as he opened his eyes, all of the tiredness had vanished. He smiled and nodded. She moved a little so that her head was resting on his chest instead of the sleeping bag. Lazily slinging a hand over his stomach, she closed her eyes, trying to relax enough to sleep. Matt was helping. She managed a smile that she was sure he could feel as Matt rubbed soothing circles across her back. The steady sound of his heartbeat was like a lullaby and she felt herself being slowly pulled under by the comforting sound.

**CRACK!**

She snapped to attention, rolling off the bag and on to her knees. She jumped to her feet as she pulled her dagger out, her eyes flickering around the room as she searched for the disturbance. Matt was behind her, his back pressed firmly against hers as he searched his half of the room. She could feel that his entire body was tensed, and the ADHD part of her mind figured that he was holding his sword in a deathgrip, his knuckles turning white from the pressure.

So much for her sleep. As that wry thought went through her mind, she shook her head, trying to keep herself focused.

"Come on," Matt said quietly, moving away from her and picking up the sleeping back and shoving it roughly into his pack. "It's time to go."

She couldn't agree more. Immediately she grabbed her green pack (a spare), and walked over to where Matt was waiting for her. As they hurriedly walked forward, toward the stone tunnel, the circular wall of their current room started shaking slightly before the opening disappeared. "What the hell?" Matt breathed as they both raced forward. Claire ran her hands over where the hallway had just been, Matt was beating on it furiously, there was nothing. "Son of a bitch," Matt swore. "You've gotta be freaking kidding me!" He kicked at the now solid wall one last time before turning around angrily.

Claire mimicked his actions, and had to fight back a curse as she realized that the other door was gone as well. Matt didn't show as much restraint. He was cursing the gods, himself, and the Maze quite thoroughly. Claire looked at him with a raised eyebrow, but before she could make a comment another ear throbbing crack echoed across the room. She felt the tremors vibrating through her boots and all the way to her head. Looking up as a small piece of stone came down from the ceiling, she felt a large intake of breath make its way into her lungs. A huge crack was spreading out, almost like a spider's web. "This can't be good," she heard Matt mutter.

Both of them stood against the wall, looking up at the ceiling anxiously, Claire was praying to the gods that some stroke of luck would come their way and a doorway would open up and get them to a safer location (if that was possible in the Labyrinth.) Of course the prayer went unanswered as the ceiling came crashing down to the floor. They were both showered with dust, dirt, and flying rocks. Her skin on her left forearm stung and burned where a sharp piece of stone hit her. She felt the warmth of the blood trickling down her arm, but refused to look down at it, much too transfixed on the figure looming in front of them.

"You've gotta be kidding me," she heard Matt mutter.

"Be careful," Claire murmured.

"I know," Matt breathed. "The middle one spews fire."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**JAMES:**

He sat on the dusty floor, the bottom of his back leaned against the wall while the top half was hunched over slightly, so his forearm was resting on his raised left knee. He didn't trust the chair that was sitting in the corner, it looked to be in better shape than the bed, but James wasn't about to take any chances. He was bored out of his mind, and whenever he would try to think of something to take the monotony away, what could be happening to Seph and Skylar ran through his head like a horror movie. Feeling anxiety starting to creep up on him, he would push the thought away from him, avoiding it like the plague.

Looking up at Will, he frowned slightly, and blinked hard, he could have sword he'd seen the son of Apollo move slightly. James had enough time to brush his hair out of his eyes (it really was getting long) and attempt to take a better look at him when Will sat straight up in the air. His eyes seemed to glow golden slightly before turning back to their normal blue. James jumped to his feet and rushed over to him.

"Skylar," Will said quickly, looking all around the room until he came across James, who'd made it to the bed. "Where's Skylar?"

"She and Seph went to search for Avery," James answered with a sigh, running his fingers through his already untidy black hair. "I was... convinced," he felt his cheeks heat up, "to stay here and watch over you."

"Convinced," Will said, looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," James said absently. "Convinced..."

Will got up from the bed. James eyed him wearily, halfway expecting to have to catch him. Will remained stably on his feet and looked at James. "Am I going to have to _convince_ you to let us go after them?"

James made a disgusted face at Will, before snorting and saying, "Gods no. Let's get to it!"

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

They'd managed to make it to the ninth floor without much conflict. He and Will were slowly walking down the hall, checking each door as they went. He heard a shout of agony followed by a loud growl coming from much further down the hall. With the torches blazing he could see a large mass of blackness further up right in front of an open door. Not even so much as thinking about it, James ran forward. It was a medium sized hound, either deaf, dumb, or too preoccupied with whatever it was trying to intimidate. Whatever the reason was, it didn't notice him, though James imagine it noticed the large cut it received in the abdomen. He heard a stream of loud and violent curses coming from the room that the hound was creeping on before the dog's loud and piercing yelp drowned out whatever that familiar voice was saying.

James waited for the sulfuric smelling dust to disperse before walking into the room. Before he even looked around, he said, "Jeez, Current, I didn't know you knew those words."

He barely heard the dry reply of, "I learned from the best," as he examined the room. Everything was dark, the fireplace was going, but it didn't do much but cause dancing shadows on the opposite wall. The two girls were beside the wall closest to the door. He tried to hide his surprise as he saw ten or so people on the ground completely knocked out. Will wasn't so controlled.

"What the hell happened?" he heard him ask.

"WILL!" Skylar literally ran and knocked straight into him, hugging him with what looked to be enough force to crack a rib.

James smiled faintly as he watched the son of Apollo's expression change from a confused one to a relieved and happy one. "Gods, Skylar," he sighed. "You don't know how nice it is to see that you're alive and okay."

James turned away, feeling as though he was intruding, and eyed Seph for a moment. She was seated in a chair with a lower back, her shirt was hitched up in the back and she gently pulled it down, clearly trying not to wince with the effort. "I thought you'd be fine," he finally said.

"I am," she insisted. "It wasn't that bad."

"What wasn't that bad?" James questioned, taking a step closer to her.

"Just a small scratch," she said. She moved her shoulders in a shrug and hissed in pain as she relaxed and they fell back into place.

Despite the urge to, he didn't rush over and check her back; he figured she wouldn't appreciate the gesture. Instead he took a shaky breath, trying his best to hide the small amount of anger that was slowly building in his stomach. "Do you need some more nectar?" he finally asked, taking yet another slow step toward her so that he was in front of the daughter of Poseidon.

Seph shook her head. "I'm fine, James. Thanks for the offer."

For some reason that made him angrier; Seph wasn't fine. She had some kind of wound to her back, and, scratch or not, it was hurting her. Before he could say anything to change her mind, Will spoke up. "We need to get that kid and get out."

"Seph can't go like this," Skylar said as she and James both walked to the door frame.

"I'm fine," Seph said snappishly, she pushed herself out of the chair, trying to hold back a wince that was painfully obvious to James.

He frowned at her as Will came up to her side, helping her stand. "Let me take a look at it," he said. "I'll let you know if its fine or not."

Before James or Skylar could do anything else, the door slammed on them, knocking them backward onto the dusty ground. James groaned in pain as he felt his nose throb. He picked his hand up and touched it. Not broken, thank gods, just sore. He felt blood from it trickling down his lips to his chin from it. "What the hell was that?" he demanded, groaning slightly.

Skylar pushed herself to her feet, stumbling a bit before regaining her balance. James was content to sit on the ground for a moment, getting his thoughts back together. He'd been closer to the door than Skylar. She tried the knob and the door was locked. James frowned slightly and shakily got to his feet, wiping the blood off his face.

That was when she started banging on the door. "Will! Seph!"

James looked around the hallway nervously; yelling probably wasn't the best idea. It got an answer, though.

"Skylar!" it was Will. "We can't get out."

"Move out of the way," James ordered. "I'll see if I can kick it in!"

After a moment, Will called it clear and James planted the flat of his foot on the wood with as much force as he could muster, the only result was him stumbling back a few steps. He would have lost his balance and went tumbling back onto the disgusting marble, but Skylar grabbed his wrist just in time. As soon as he got his balance back, he frowned angrily at the door. "That's not good," he muttered. "I know I'm not weak and that wood should have come down a lot easier than that..."

"James!" it was Seph. "Are you okay?"

"Fine," he replied. "We can't break the door down!"

"We noticed," came her dry reply. "I saw how hard you hit it, that should have come down."

"Something's keeping it closed," Skylar guessed. "I have a feeling that I know who."

"You're not alone," came Will's groan as a reply. "I don't know if the window in here is locked or not..."

"We're on the ninth floor!" Seph snapped at him.

"We can climb down," Will replied calmly.

"Don't do that," James commanded. "Seph has acrophobia from Hades and she's gonna freak out and fall if she goes down."

"So what do we do?" Skylar asked, looking between James and the door.

"The objective hasn't changed," Seph said sounding much calmer than she had just seconds before. "We need to find Avery."

"Agreed," James said.

"We're not in any immediate danger as far as I can tell," Will said. "But after all that shouting and banging, I imagine that both of you are. Go and find him, we'll see if we can find a way out ourselves."

**I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I can't wait to read about what you thought of it. I ownly got four reviews last chapter :/ but I did have a 40th reviewer, which was HoangMai. And trust me, with chapters this long, reviews are what keeps me writing like a good little nerd! Oh and I've got an easy way for you to feel smart! What just 'dropped' in on Matt and Claire. (Cheesy joke, I know) I'll give shout outs to the smart cookies that can tell me.**

**Guest: thanks I'm glad you liked the chapter and I think I update pretty often, lol, but I'll try to update just as rapidly.**

**Arwin Fred: the funny thing about your review was that I was already planning to put Will back in in chapter 8. And as for the first part of your review... well you never know. ;)**

**Booklover113: thanks**

**HoangMai: Glad you 'Lurved' it lol**


	9. Everyone Hates Elizabeth

**MCKENNA:**

She wasn't exactly a happy camper at the moment. That was bit of an understatement when it came to describing how angry she felt. She looked at Elizabeth, who was speaking to the army, "Alright, people. We've gotta move, somebody carry the death spawn," she called.

"You aren't touching Zach," she snapped as a laistrygonian giant walked toward her.

"Either I carry him or I kill him," the giant rumbled indifferently, "your choice."

McKenna bit her lip and stepped aside, allowing the giant to pick the now unconscious Zach up from the ground. Looking back around, she saw that Elizabeth had Rachel grasped by the arm and was dragging her toward the door that they'd entered from. "What are you doing?" McKenna demanded.

"Silence," Elizabeth snapped at her. "You're lucky I haven't ordered for anyone to knock you out yet." Elizabeth got to the door and shoved Rachel out of it forcefully. "Stupid useless mortal," she spat before slamming the door shut.

"What are you doing?" McKenna asked weakly. "She's unarmed and a mortal! She can't defend herself out there!"

"Her problem," Elizabeth said coldly. "Now let's go!"

The large army didn't waste a second. They started walking forward, two demigods who were covered in too much armor for her to make out any significant details of their appearances were behind her, a sword and a spear were pressed against her back, prodding her along. She turned and frowned at them in obvious annoyance, wondering what she'd managed to get herself into.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

It was maybe a twenty minute walk from the arena to Daedalus' workshop, and McKenna figured out why. They had a clear-sighted mortal with them. Since when were they using mortals? She didn't have very much time to ponder the thought, because she was not so gently shoved backward into a wall by Elizabeth. Taking the hint, she sat down against it and glared up at the daughter of Melinoe.

Zach was dropped beside her and he groaned slightly in his unconscious state. McKenna glared at the giant that dropped him, he smiled at her evilly, showing off a set of mossy green teeth... charming.

A door on the opposite side of the room opened up and an older man stumbled forward, his hands catching on a small table, preventing himself from falling face first on to the dirty floor. Another guy walked in slowly after him, his hair was a shaggy blonde and his eyes were a steely blue. "This old man is useless," he growled. "He'll never move fast enough to build us our new weapon in time!"

Elizabeth looked over at him sharply. "Is that so?"

The blonde, Oliver, nodded emotionlessly, "Yeah, he's barely halfway finished with the blue prints! He's already complaining about needing rest!"

"Let him rest," Elizabeth said coldly. "I'll go back to Alas-" she cut herself off as she looked at McKenna, who was unabashedly watching her. "Back to the base and get some children of Athena."

"How long should you be gone?" Oliver questioned.

"About a day, Ate needs me for a few things before I come back. I'm sure you can manage to keep up with three incompetent prisoners until then."

A woman, who looked to be around twenty three or so with bright blonde hair and blue eyes walked over to Elizabeth... it was the mortal. "There's some activity going on in the maze. More demigods."

Frowning, she whirled around and looked at Oliver, "Any soldiers missing?"

The son of Apollo shook his head, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

"Any soldiers dispersed?" Elizabeth questioned.

Oliver's head shook yet again in negation. "No one, they're either here or..." he looked at McKenna, who was still unabashedly observing them. "At the base."

Elizabeth looked at McKenna in distaste, speaking to Oliver at the same time. "Must be some of their friends."

"I can take care of it," Oliver said, his hand moving to over his shoulder where a quiver full of arrows was sitting.

"No," Elizabeth said immediately, turning away from McKenna and looked at the clear-sighted blonde. "Get a group of monsters, lead them to the demigods and get rid of them."

She smiled and nodded. "Yes ma'am."

Elizabeth smiled, clearly pleased with the name.

McKenna internally groaned as she knocked her head against the wall. She didn't know who was in the maze, but she wasn't envious of them. Elizabeth left into the next room and was gone, Daedalus was dragged into the same room, probably for rest, and the clear-sighted mortal left as well. That left just her, Zach, and a messed up in the head Oliver.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

There was no telling how long she'd been sitting there with Oliver looking at her strangely. Finally getting fed up with the silence, she said, "Can I help you?"

"Why would you come?" he asked immediately. "I don't understand. You knew we had Daedalus under heavy guard, why would you risk your life to try and get him?"

McKenna glared up at him, contemplating on whether or not to dignify him with a response. She remembered Matt telling her that Oliver was innocent, she remembered him exclaiming that he wasn't in his right mind as they were in a wrecked Olympus. Maybe saying a thing or two would make him snap out of it.

"Some things are worth dying for," she informed him coldly. "This was one of them."

"How?" Oliver demanded. "You dying? How does that suit you in any way?"

"It's gonna save lives," McKenna said. "Possibly loved ones."

Oliver blinked at her uncomprehendingly.

McKenna sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know you used to be a mercenary and all, but try to have a heart to understand me with!"

Oliver frowned at her, "Mercenary?" he questioned. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Soldier of fortune?" McKenna clarified. "You and Matt Andrews were both in it together."

Oliver blinked, his hands massaging his temples as he groaned slightly. "I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know any Matt Andrews!"

McKenna frowned up at him confused. "Oliver, do you remember anything?"

"Of course I do," he snapped.

"Then what's your last name?" McKenna demanded.

Oliver opened his mouth and McKenna waited for an answer, but all that came out was air. He closed his eyes and blinked. "I-"

He was cut off by a shout of protest coming from the door outside of the room and a crashing noise. Before Oliver could do much else other than close his mouth and shakily grab an arrow from his quiver, the door busted open, landing on the ground with a deafening thud and three people charged in.

**SKYLAR:**

"Alright," James said through the door. "You're not going to have to climb anywhere, Seph," he promised, placing his hand on the door as if trying to reach her. "We're going to get the kid and we'll be right back... I promise."

He walked away from the door and looked at Skylar, gesturing for her to walk. "Okay," James said, "do you mind telling me what the hell's going on?"

"There're mortals patrolling around and Ate, the goddess of evil and misfortune, is controlling them. We can't hurt them since its not their fault. The rest is business as usual. Snake women, hellhounds, I think I saw a few laistrygonian giants as well."

They made it to the stairs and James sighed. "Time to say hello, I guess."

Skylar gave him her best smirk and dug around in her pocket. A small bronze ball sat in her hands. "Jake Mason made this for me. There's a button on this, and it works as a grenade almost. It bursts and celestial bronze flies everywhere. It'll hurt demigods, kill monsters, and not even faze mortals."

James grabbed it from her hand and said, "Fine, stay here while I throw it."

Skylar frowned and opened her mouth to protest, but James cut her off, "I can control winds, remember, my aim and throw is better because of it."

Skylar sighed, her eyes faced the marble steps as she nodded, he had a point. "Fine," she said, "but you'd better be okay"

She saw James roll his eyes, but he looked at her with a kind smile, "I always come out okay, don't I?"

Without waiting for another answer from the daughter of Hermes, he walked forward, right out in the middle of the hall. Skylar saw him press the button and throw the ball right into the middle of the hall. Everything that was patrolling stopped at looked at the object. James didn't waste anytime, he dove back toward the stairway and knocked into Skylar, sending them both awkwardly tumbling to the ground and down the stairs. They both landed at the base of the stairs with a painful thud, Skylar on top of him groaning. Before either of them could do anything, the explosion sounded and she was suddenly flipped to where James was covering her. A moment later he winced in pain and slowly got up from her.

"You okay?" he questioned as she got to her feet.

"Yeah," she said, "but I don't think you are."

"I'm fine," he said, "small bit of metal in my back. We don't have time to worry about it now, though, let's go before people decide to come out of hiding."

She nodded and they both sprinted up the stairs, swords at the ready. The hall was cleared, piles of dust could be seen everywhere and doors had been knocked down, she figured that the mortals had taken cover. She and James opened each of the closed doors and looked around, finding only stale air and dust. They'd made it halfway down the hallway when James stopped. "I think I've found our destination," he murmured in a barely audible whisper.

Skylar didn't say anything; she just looked at him, slowly raising an eyebrow in an obvious question. James pointed at a door that was three doors down from them on the left side of the hallway. Light was flickering from under the door and the daughter of Hermes had a very disturbing sense of deja vu. She and Seph had just done what they were about to do yet again. James gestured for her to stand aside, which Skylar immediately did, and he proceeded to kick the door down.

It landed on the ground with a thud and both she and James jumped in. There were two people in the room, Skylar only recognized one of them and it wasn't someone that she was pleased to see again.

Elizabeth.

Looking at the daughter of Melinoe with a stony glare, Skylar stepped into the door right behind James. He had his sword pointed menacingly at Elizabeth. "Not one move," he growled. "I won't hesitate to run you through!"

"I thought we were closer than that, Jamie!" she exclaimed.

"The last time I saw you, my girlfriend was dying from an arrow and you tried to get me to kill her," he growled. "I don't think so."

Elizabeth smiled at him nastily and said, "You mean the girl who doesn't even reciprocate your feelings? The one that you killed anyway?"

As James was talking to Elizabeth, who was taunting him, Skylar walked over to the other person, clearly Avery. He was adorable with his red hair and freckles. He was looking at her with bright green eyes lit up in fear as she took in his appearance. His hands were bound behind his back and his mouth was covered by something that prevented him from speaking. As Skylar saw this she began shaking in rage; the daughter of Hermes may not have known the small son of Demeter, but she didn't need to. He was only a little boy! Skylar cut the ropes off his wrists and took the cloth out of his mouth.

"Skylar!" he said quietly, immediately wrapping his arms around her torso and giving her a large hug. Not knowing what else to do, she hugged him back.

"You know," Elizabeth's voice rang out. "I don't know whether I should laugh or be offended by the insinuation that you thought that getting the child back would be this easy."

"Why wouldn't it be?" James demanded, stepping a bit closer and pressing his sword even more firmly to her neck.

Skylar turned toward the doorway and saw with a degree of horror that Elizabeth was the least of their worries. Out in the hall, waiting for Elizabeth's orders were hordes of monsters, humans, and demigods. "You've gotta be kidding me," she groaned, automatically pushing the small boy behind her.

James seemed to sense that something was off as well, because he turned around and she saw his tanned face turn paper white. "Oh gods," he said.

Skylar turned around, dead set on forcing Elizabeth to call off the army. She couldn't, though, Elizabeth was gone. It didn't take long after that, not two seconds later, the army was on them.

"We can't take them all," Skylar called as she blocked a jab from a dracaenae and brought her free hand around to grab the spear, shoving the butt of it away from her, causing the wielder to stumble backward and into the crowd, which quickly consumed her.

"I'm offended," James said as he dispatched three enemies with one swing of his blade. "I've been through worse!"

Skylar ducked out of the way of a sword and shot James an annoyed look. "With a seven year old?"

"What the hell do you suggest then?" he snapped.

"The window," she exclaimed. "Fly us out!"

He was silent for a moment as he held off other attackers. "Fine," he said, his voice loud from the strain of blocking a powerful looking blow. "Come on!"

Slashing at a demigod with a dagger, making her jump out of her way, Skylar gripped Avery's hand and dragged him toward their only escape. James' arm latched on to her waist and she held on to him for dear life as he picked Avery up and jumped out of the window, turning slightly so she and Avery would be spared the damage of the shattered glass. To be truthful, feeling herself free falling was a nauseating feeling. She was pretty sure she screamed, but James managed to catch them maybe ten feet from impact, lowering them gently to the ground outside the hotel.

Skylar let James go, shaking slightly as she stood there. She saw that James was tightly hugging Avery, he was turned sideways, so she could see blood running down his arm where the glass had shattered. Not to mention the middle part of his shirt, right next to his spine had five small holes where the celestial bronze had pierced his flesh.

"James," Skylar said, stepping closer, "you're-"

"Hurt," he finished for her shortly. "I know, jumping through glass tends to do that. Its not that bad, stay with Avery, get to the van. I'll go back in and get Will and Seph out."

"No," Skylar protested. "You aren't going alone!"

James closed his eyes as though he was praying for patience. When he opened them, she saw how dim they were. He had dark bags under his eyes and he screamed _exhausted_. "Look," he said wearily, "cut me some slack, please. I am the only logical choice, those creatures are still in that building, chances are that I'm going to have to break out with Will and Seph in the same fashion. So go with Avery."

"Seph?" Avery said. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah," James said. "She's fine." He kneeled down so that he was looking the redhead in the eyes. "Listen, I've gotta go on another mission, alright."

"No," Avery protested. "You're always going on missions!"

There were no words for how confused Skylar was at that moment.

"I won't be long," James said. He bit his lip as he looked at the younger boy. "I promise. I'm going to get Seph and Will back. You wanna see them again, don't you?"

Avery nodded, grimacing slightly, and James gave him a smile. "Come on, I'll be an hour tops."

He looked at him and said, "Promise?"

"I promise," James said.

"Alright," Avery relented.

"I need you to go with Skylar," he said. "She doesn't remember you, so why don't you tell her about yourself?"

Avery smiled and Skylar found herself falling in love with just how adorably innocent the child was. Avery walked over and took Skylar's hand. "Let's go so James can come back."

"Alright, sweetie," Skylar said, internally promising herself that she was going to get answers one way or another when this was all over.

**CLAIRE:**

Before the middle head of the hydra could even open its mouth, she and Matt had jumped in opposite directions, seconds later a searing heat was on her back. She ducked out of the way of a set of teeth and rolled to her feet behind the monster. She saw that Matt was on the opposite side of the room. Her eyes flickered to the spot that they had just been standing, it was completely blackened, the torch that'd been there was completely cremated.

Uttering a few curses under her breath at how close she'd come to being barbequed, she pulled her dagger out. The reptilian monster turned around to look at them. She counted her lucky stars that it was only a small one. Three heads, maybe ten feet tall excluding its neck. As it turned around, the head clearest to her dove forward and Claire rolled to the side only to scramble to her feet and jump to the back wall to avoid another explosion of flames. "Claire!" she heard Matt yell. "Grab a torch!"

She looked at her boyfriend with an expression of disbelief. "What? If I wanted fire, I'd stand in front of the middle head!"

Matt had to jump out of the way of the right head and ended up slamming right into her. Both went down onto the ground, Matt's weight was crushing Claire for a moment, knocking the breath out of her before he pushed himself up, dragging her to her feet along with him. "Damn it, Claire, listen to me for once! Grab a torch!"

Seeing that there was no time to explain, Claire nodded and ran toward the nearest source of fire and Matt ran at the beast. She had to hurriedly duck as a column of flames rushed over her head. Scolding herself for letting her guard up for even a moment, she got to her feet and her free hand clasped around the torch and she immediately ran the other way, narrowly missing a large fang as she ran out of the immediate danger.

"What now?" she demanded.

Matt was busy rolling under the flames, cursing loudly and couldn't answer. Claire shouted at the Hydra. "Hey, jackass!" she screamed. "Over here!"

The Hydra apparently didn't like her using profanities because it jumped at her. Both heads coming at her from the side and the middle head opened its mouth, flames flickering inside, about to incinerate her.

The next three seconds happened in slow motion, the two heads were closing in on her and she was looking everywhere for an escape, she was against the back wall, and completely trapped. She inhaled sharply, waiting for death. Just when she was sure that she had maybe a second left, the left head fell with a howl.

"Burn the stump!" Matt shouted. "NOW!"

Claire didn't hesitate, she jumped forward and brought the torch to the thing's severed neck. Immediately it caught fire and shriveled away. Claire took a shaky breath and ran away from the monster, breathing deeply, just thankful to be alive.

She didn't have much time to rejoice. The monster was looking at her and it wasn't happy, apparently the other two heads weren't pleased about losing their brother. Matt wasn't anywhere near her, but on the other side of the room. The beast seemed to have an internal dilemma, it was debating about who to attack since its long reptilian necks weren't long enough to reach either person without moving.

It seemed to be in favor of attacking Matt. It left its back wide open, the son of Ares jumped out of the way of flames, but the other head was coming at him. There was no way he'd move in time. Moving faster than she had ever in her life, she brought her dagger up and sliced through its neck causing it to shrivel up. Matt gripped the torch that was behind him and tore it off the wall, burning its stump.

Both he and Claire jumped out of the way of an incoming column of flames and rolled to the middle of the room. The daughter of Hermes found some humor in how big the thing's body was compared to its single head. She was breathing heavily and she heard the ragged gasps coming out of Matt. She felt a pain in her lower arm, looking down she grimaced at the sight it was bright red and stinging from the burn it'd received. She quickly forgot the pain as Matt dove into her side, both of them rolled out of the way as the head of the Hydra slammed into the wall behind where they were just standing.

"It can only come for one of us," Claire breathed. "Split up."

Matt nodded. "Pay attention," he snapped at her.

She only nodded before they both separated, going to either side of the large room. The Hydra looked at both of them, its head snapping back and forth as it contemplated which person to attack first. She saw that Matt was looking at her intently. She flashed him a smile and subtly motioned for him to watch the giant fire-breathing lizard. That was a bad idea, the monster saw her small movement and roared, charging after her, its mouth wide open and flames licking at his lips as he prepared to shoot. Claire ran out of the way of the heat and yelped as she realized that he was following her with the column of fire. And as suddenly as it'd started, the torrent of heat ended. She heard the head land on the ground with a wet thud and the sizzling of the stump of the neck being burned. Breathing heavily and allowing her body to feel all the aches and pains she slumped to the ground with an exhausted _oomph_. She tiredly looked up and saw Matt walking toward her, he was sweaty and filthy but when he sat down beside her, she didn't think twice about resting her head on his shoulder. They both watched the body of the headless Hydra turn to dust and settle to the ground as if it'd never been there.

She closed her eyes for a moment before sighing loudly.

"You broke part of our deal," Matt muttered.

"What are you talking about?" Claire asked, getting tiredly to her feet and walking to her bag. She leaned over and started rifling through it, looking for a bag of ambrosia. After a few seconds of struggling, she found her goal and stood back up after eating a square and placing the rest back in the bag. When she stood back up and turned around, she was face to face with Matt, and he looked furious... again.

"I said 'no unnecessary risks,'" he growled. "You taunting that monster was definitely unnecessary!"

"You mean when it almost killed you?" Claire snapped, feeling much too exhausted to argue, but too stubborn to stand down. "I did the right thing!"

"It was baring down on you!" he said hoarsely. "How was causing that the right thing? You could have died!"

"Then it would have been worth it," she said, letting herself lean backward and rest her back against one of the flat parts of the walls.

"Don't talk like that," Matt groaned.

Claire frowned and looked at him straight into his mesmerizing eyes. Forcing herself to focus on her annoyance, she said, "Its the truth, first off, and second, I'll talk like that if I want to! Why don't you make me stop talking like that?"

She saw Matt inhale slightly, his anger visible as he glared at her. Suddenly he took a step closer to her and practically locked her into place against the wall with his proximity. "If you want to help," he said softly, "then you need to listen. I'm trying to stop you from getting killed."

She looked at him, his breath fanning across her face, they were nose to nose, and she was trying her best not to feel nervous and to remain still despite the fact that she felt like squirming. "I'm not going to stand by and let you hurt yourself," Claire said, trying to keep her voice empty of emotion.

Matt was silent for a moment, just looking at her, before he looked farther down, "Are you hurt anywhere? Do you need some nectar, or some water?"

"Matt," Claire said softly, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. "Shut up." She kissed him softly as he just stood there frozen in apparent shock. When she pulled away and looked at him, she felt herself get slightly embarrassed. Why hadn't he kissed her back? "Ma-" was as far as she was able to get before her lips were cut off by an urgent kiss from Matt. One of his hands tangled itself tightly in her hair, his free arm snaked around her waist and pulled her closer.

Claire was taken aback by the power of the kiss and the feelings behind it. She pulled back slightly, her head lightly smacking the wall as she tried to catch her breath. He followed her and leaned his forehead against hers, looking at her straight in the eyes. "I was worried about you," he said his voice was barely a whisper. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I still am worried about you," Claire said softly, running a finger gently down his neck, across his scar.

He stole another soft kiss from her before asking, "Why?"

"You're carrying too much on your shoulders. I don't doubt your ability to handle stressful situations, but I'm still worried. Even the strongest need their moments of reprieve. When are you going to take yours?"

"I get it whenever I'm with you," he replied softly, his hand tracing a line down her back from her neck to her waist along her spine, leaving a trail of fire.

"You know what I mean," Claire said sternly. "You need a break."

"I don't have time for one now," he said gravely before pushing away from her. She took advantage their distance and tried her best to clear her thoughts.

"But you will," she replied firmly. "When we get out of here."

She and Matt seemed to have the same realization at the same time. The son of Ares looked at her sharply before looking around the room. When he gaze settled on her again, he asked, "And how are we getting out?"

Claire opened her mouth to respond but as if the Maze was answering his question, a section of the wall started sliding to the side, revealing the pathway that had originally closed. "I imagine that's how," she replied smartly.

Matt rolled his eyes and opened his mouth, probably for an equally smart reply, but before he could, a human figure came barrelling inside, their breathing was loud enough to carry across the room, telling Claire that she had been running for a while.

The mane of frizzy red hair and the ratty t-shirt and doodled jeans were a dead give away. "Rachel?" Matt spoke up first. "Where are the others?"

"In trouble," she said. "So are we, there's a large platoon of monsters on their way to exterminate you."

"What?" Claire demanded. "Why... how?"

"Overheard everything," she said. "They think you're here to rescue Zach and McKenna."

"Well we are now," Claire announce. "What happened?"

Without another word to prod her, Rachel began talking, twisting a tale about Zach and McKenna in Antaeus' layer. "I think they're in Daedalus' workshop," Rachel said finally ending her quick story, "I don't know if I'm right, but I do know I can get there."

She and Matt looked at each other for a moment before both of them glanced back at Rachel. "Alright," Claire said, bending down and grabbing her and Matt's bags. She tossed Matt his and room a step toward the Oracle. "Let's get them back."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Rachel quickly led them through the Maze, going through a series of twists and turns. They went through a small arena, according to Rachel, they didn't have to worry because Antaeus was dead for the moment. Quite a few times she called for them to go down small side tunnels, where they would constantly have to duck under sharp blades or pointed spikes and jump over openings in the ground. Eventually they made it to a large set of doors, a Greek Delta emblazoned on them

"They're on the other side," Rachel announced.

Claire smiled at the slightly younger girl and said, "Thank you for the help. Maybe you should stay-"

"No," Rachel cut her off. "McKenna and Zach are from my team. I can't stay here while they're in danger!"

Claire smiled at her, she was brave. "Alright," she relented. "Let's get this over with."

"Please be careful," Matt pleaded. "Both of you."

When both girls nodded, Matt kicked the door open and Claire saw two guards standing in front of another set of doors. Both guards tensed up in shock, which melted rather quickly. Her exhaustion must have been showing because both guards ran at her, probably just to get her out of the way. Matt was by her side in an instant though. His fist met one's jaw sending him tumbling backward, while Claire tripped one, sending him sprawling to the ground. One well aimed stomp to the face, rendered the guard unconscious with a broken nose.

Matt was already stalking forward he knocked the next door clean off its hinges, it hit the ground with a thud and all three of them dashed inside, not quite sure what to expect.

**I always had fun with these, so I'm bringing back the short sneak peeks!**

_**Preview:**_

_**"James, how does that kid know anything about me? He hugged me and said that he missed me living with him! That he was happy to have his big brother and big sister back. Please, James, for the love of Zeus, tell me what's going on!"**_

_**James looked at Seph gravely, "You know I can't do that."**_

**Shout outs for the smart cookies who guessed the Hydra:**

_**Arwin Fred**_

_**Skylar (**_**you know who you are... long name lol)**


	10. Fighting For Memories

**SEPH:**

Seph groaned after maybe thirty minutes of continuous monotony. She and Will had sat by the door, staring off into the dark space while their friends were risking their lives. She couldn't take it any more, she jumped to her feet, walked to the door, and slammed the flat of her foot against it, in what she knew would be a futile attempt of getting out. That was when she was proven wrong, the door groaned and the old door crackeddoor slightly, a large line drew itself in the middle of the aged wood. Will noticed it as well and said, "How the... we just tried that exact trick thirty minutes ago!

"Someone must have released the spell," Seph said, frowning. "Try it again?"

Will nodded, "We should be able to break it easily together." He stood beside Seph and examined the aged wood. "On three?"

Seph nodded, "One... two... three!" Both demigods brought their foot against the door with equal force, causing it to cave in, both halves flipped out of the doorway and landed separately on the ground with an echoing thud. As one, the two demigods slowly walked out of the room, weapons drawn.

"Which way?" Seph questioned, "up or down?"

"James and Skylar haven't been back for us yet," Will said slowly. "We should probably go up and see if they need any help."

Seph nodded and they both sprinted toward the nearest set of marble stairs. They made it halfway up, when they were forced to freeze. The sound of yelling and shouting was carried all the way down the stairs. Then a sound that unmistakably was glass shattering. "Damn!" she heard. "I didn't think they'd actually use the window!"

She and Will looked at each other with wide eyes. As one they both ran the other way. It took them all of five minutes to make it to the fifth floor, they probably had around ten monsters on their tail, and Seph was pretty sure that the mass of the army had been alerted to their presence. That didn't matter anymore, they needed to get down to the ground floor and figure out if James and Skylar were okay. Hopefully they found Avery as well.

They were almost at the stairway for the fourth floor, still keeping a running pace, when someone came rushing up them. Both demigods froze as they heard the echo of rapid moving footsteps. She and Will both looked at each other before running to either side of the small doorway that led to the stairs. Seph saw a figure dart past them. It took her a moment to register the messy black hair and tall frame. Before she could stop herself, she called his name out. "James!"

The son of Jupiter froze and turned around slowly. "Thank gods you're okay," she said as he ran back over to them. "We overheard something about a window... what about Skylar? Did you find Avery?"

James blinked at her accidently rapidly fired questions. "Everyone's fine, we broke out through the window. I'll explain the rest later. You probably don't want to be around when the army comes looking."

Without another word, James ran down the stairs, Will and Seph followed closely behind; all of them were trying their best to remain silent.

They only had one more floor to go when Seph heard what she'd so desperately wished she didn't have to hear. Numerous footsteps gaining from behind them. Seph was about to turn around and see what they were up against, but James called out. "Don't look behind you, run!"

James, on the other hand, turned around frowned at the space behind them, obviously in extreme concentration. She saw the wind starting to pick up and the army that was coming down the stairs immediately fell backward. James turned aaround racing toward the exit again. "Didn't I tell you to run?" he demanded, grasping her hand and forcefully dragging her along, both now trailing behind Will. They all batted through the outside door and through the lawn. All three of them piled into the large van. Skylar was in the driver's seat, a small redheaded boy was sitting shotgun. The daughter of Hermes didn't think twice about starting the engine and speeding away.

Seph allowed herself to feel the hammering of her heart beat painfully against her chest. The exhaustion that she'd been battling against for so long finally crashed down on her. She collapsed into a seat and felt her eyes close almost immediately.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Seph was sound asleep, but she found herself being halfway woken up when the van stopped and a door opened. "Do you want me to wake her up and take her to her cabin?" she heard Skylar ask.

"No," she felt the vibration of James' voice, which told her what her pillow had been. "I've got her." She felt an arm wrap around her waist and another one go around her knees. She halfway opened her exhausted eyes. "It's okay, Seph," she heard James soothingly say, "go back to sleep."

She felt herself being lifted into the air. Subconsciously, she wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head in its crook, the sound of his heartbeat put her to sleep almost instantly.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

_It was dark, damp, and cold. Seph looked around and saw that she was in a cold cramped cell. She was high in the air, the very thought was making her nauseated. Below her, she saw camp Half-Blood. It was on fire, demigods were fighting demigods and all of them were falling to the ground, dead._

_"You did this, Seph," Gaea's voice echoed though her head tauntingly. "You aren't cut out for being a demigod, let alone the child of the prophecy. You're destined to fail. You already knew all of this! So why are you even trying? You're so pathetic, sea spawn, we've already beaten you once, and you're too weak to remember. You know that James Tempest's first observations of you were right. Why don't you give up before you kill your loved ones again?"_

_"What do you mean again?" Seph demanded._

_"This is your future and everyone else's if you don't give in. You know deep down that you're not competent enough for this."_

_"You're lying," Seph said, it sounded weak even to her._

_Suddenly the scene from under her switched. She saw her friends being slaughtered, her family being cut down along with anyone else who didn't surrender._

_"No," Seph said as she saw James up next ._

_"This is all your fault," he said coldly, looking at her with undisguised hatred._

_"No," Seph said again, as a large sword came down toward him. "No!" she screamed as he was cut down like everyone else._

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

Her eyes snapped opened as she sat up in her bunk-bed breathing heavily, her head hitting the empty top bunk painfully. Looking drowsily around the cabin, she realized that it was filled with a bright light that came from outside. She'd slept in.

She forced herself out of bed, feeling tired and achy, as if she hadn't gotten a minute of rest. She grabbed a pair of jeans, a camp t-shirt, and a towel. She walked over to the showers, which were blessfully empty, and began to get ready for the day. Ten minutes later she walked back to her cabin, feeling slightly better thanks to the water. After she placed her possessions back into her chest, she walked back outside yet again, trying to enjoy the measly remains of her Sunday. She made it three steps out of her cabin before she was almost tackled to the ground with a hug. She had to look down to see her assailant, it was the redheaded boy that they'd rescued the previous night.

"Seph!" he said excitedly. "You're okay! I missed you. It's not the same living without my big sister, you and and James are the best, guess that's why he's my big brother!"

Seph frowned at the small boy, who was embracing her with his face buried into her stomach, in confusion. She bit her lip before embracing the boy in return, patting his back.

As if he'd heard his name, James came running toward the two of them, a worried look on his face after he examined Seph's expression. "Hey, Avery," James said gently to the smaller boy. The soft tone in his voice shocked Seph. "Seph doesn't remember you either."

The smaller boy let go of Seph and whirled around to look at James. "Why?" she couldn't see his face, but he sounded as though he was near tears.

"I'll explain later," James promised. "Will wanted to teach you some archery, he's beside your cabin waiting for you."

The smaller boy's posture immediately straightened. "Alright," he said cheerily. "See you later, James! Bye Seph!"

He leaned over and whispered loudly into James' ear, "Why haven't you kissed her good morning yet like you always used to?"

She felt her face flushing at the thought, and saw that James' eyes closed in poorly hid exasperation. Avery seemed blissfully oblivious to his agitation and ran off to play with some arrows. James looked at Seph and took half a step closer, his hands raised up in the air in a surrendering type of manner. "I know you're confused-"

"That isn't even the word for it," Seph said shortly cutting him off. "James, how does that kid know anything about me? He hugged me and said that he missed me living with him! That he was happy to have his big brother and big sister back. Please, James, for the love of Zeus, tell me what's going on!"

James looked at Seph gravely, "You know I can't do that."

"How do I know that?" Seph demanded. "The only thing that I know is that I am so confused and unsure and..." she took an unsteady breath as she looked at James, hurt cast on her features. "What are we, James?"

The son of Jupiter looked at Seph sharply. "What do you mean?" his tone was gentle and guarded at the same time.

"You and me," she said, not in the mood for mind games. "What are we?"

"That depends," James said, his tone incredibly soft. "What do you want us to be?"

"I don't know," she said finally, unable to look at him, her voice no more than a whisper. She felt herself shaking slightly as she stood there. "I don't know anymore. I'm getting so many mixed signals from you and everyone else. I mean, half the time I feel as though everyone knows exactly what we are and that they know that we're supposed to be something more."

"I don't care about what anyone else thinks," James said, coldness deep within his voice.

"Neither do I," Seph said. "But you're always giving off conflicting signals." She put her face into her hands, trying to draw some more internal strength, but she couldn't find anything to push her onward.

She looked at him, he was composed and impassive as always. The thought annoyed her. "I just can't do it anymore, James." She shoved past the son of Jupiter, determined to find some answers for herself.

Her hand grazed something wet and warm on his shoulder, immediately she froze. She looked at her hand and saw blood smeared across it. She saw James grimacing in obvious pain. Her confused gaze flickered from her hand to James' shoulder, "What-"

Her question was cut off by James shrugging, "Its not that bad, only a small cut."

That was the first time she took in his appearance. He seemed paler than usual and she saw a sheen of sweat across his forehead. "This," she snapped, holding her hand out for him to see the blood, "is not a small cut."

Before he could say anything, she took a step toward him and reached out for the back of his shirt. He made no move to stop her as she raised it up. She stopped halfway when she saw shiny pieces of bronze embedded in his back, a few centimeters from his spine. "What happened?" she demanded, her hand lightly grazing the wound, heat coming off of it.

"Its not that big of a deal," James said tiredly.

"James, it's infect-"

He whirled around, easily breaking her loose grip on his shirt. He grasped her wrists in his hands, she looked down at them frowning slightly. She blinked before slowly tilting her head upward. He was looking at her, his expression guarded as if he was worried about what she would do. Slowly he leaned down toward her, and she found herself leaning in as well. Both paused maybe an inch away from each other. James blinked at looked at her, uncertainty obvious in his eyes.

Seph's breath hitched as he blinked again and leaned in again, this time filling the gap completely. Seph's breathing stopped completely, even as she shoved him away. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she thought she was going to collapse from the feelings rushing through her head, blank memories were everywhere, just begging to be given back. She inhaled sharply and brought her hands to her head, buring her face as she tried to stifle a sob. She felt so weak, she felt so confused, and she felt completely hopeless. She felt an arm wrap around her, and as much as she wanted to breakdown completely and cry at the unfairness of it all, she knew she couldn't.

Stiffly, she moved away from James before he could trap her in a warm embrace. "You should go and get your back checked out," she said quietly, not having the courage to look at him. She didn't wait for an answer before she walked away. So much for enjoying her Sunday.

She didn't really know where she was going, she just allowed her feet to carry her wherever they desired. Her mind was off in another land, too busy feeling sorry for herself to remotely do anything else. She found herself at the Hermes cabin. Not even bothering to knock, she walked inside. Skylar was lounging around on her top bunk, earbuds were easily seen shoved in her ears, but the look on her face made it clear that she wasn't really listening to the music. It only took a couple seconds for the daughter of Hermes to realize that she wasn't alone. As soon as she saw Seph, she sat up, throwing her legs off the bed, so that they were dangling in the air, showing off mismatched fuzzy socks. Her green earbuds were popped out of her ears and she looked at Seph with a grim smile.

Said daughter of Poseidon crossed her arms over her chest and leaned lightly on the bare wall beside the doorway, returning the grim smile.

"You look like you could use someone to talk to," Skylar said, breaking the short silence. "James do something stupid again?"

Seph closed her eyes as a small humorless laugh escaped her lips. "You have no idea how much I wish that was my problem," she said sincerely. "James is hardly a part of it."

"What happened?" Skylar asked.

"I'm just so confused," Seph explained. "It's like you and I were kept out of the loop of a failed plan or something. I know we aren't the only ones, but even my parents won't tell me what's going on! And trust me, they know, I heard them talking about James one night, they've never met James!"

"You're just as confused as I am," Skylar said grimly. "I'm sorry."

Seph shook her head, waving off her friends pointless apology. "Don't worry about it. I'm sick of being kept in the dark, and neither of us have done anything that deemed this kind of punishment as a good one."

Skylar looked at Seph for a moment silently. Suddenly her blue eyes lit up, the gleam in them was one that Seph had come to recognize: she had a plan some kind. She hopped down from the top bunk, with a small thud, and looked at Seph with a grin on her face.

"What are you thinking of?" Seph questioned, not allowing herself to feel any amount of hope.

"Who are the ones who have our memories?" Skylar questioned.

"The gods," Seph said slowly, not sure where she was going with this.

"Exactly!" Skylar exclaimed. "And I know three gods that wouldn't incinerate us for questioning them: your dad, my dad, and Apollo. Our fathers are the ones to go after."

"Let me get this straight, your idea was for us to go to Olympus and ask our fathers?" Seph demanded.

"Yep," Skylar confirmed, already digging through her chest. She stood up after a moment, a thick stack of dollar bills in her hand. Seph had a feeling that the money wasn't honestly made. "Ready to go?" Skylar asked, taking Seph out of her ADHD ponderings.

"Wait a minute," Seph said. "We don't even have a-"

She was cut off by a strong breeze. Normally she wouldn't have cared about the wind, but the were inside of a cabin, all doors and window were closed. She yelped and slammed her eyes shut as a bright light beamed in from the ceiling.

She was being lifted into the air, feeling completely weightless. When the light died down, she could tell that they were in a different place without even opening her eyes, the light didn't beat down on her eyes through her eyelids as harshly. The air was cooler and it no longer smelt like the Hermes cabin, instead she smelled a distinct oceanic scent. Her eyelids snapped open and she felt herself kneeling before her brain had time to catch up with what was going on. She saw Skylar next to her, copying her actions, out of the corner of her eye. They were in the Olympian throne room, Poseidon and Hermes were both standing in front of them. The gods looked like extremely handsome mortals, apparently deciding to walk around being six foot instead of sixteen foot. Hermes looked like he was in his mid thirties, a short-sleeved shirt and jogging pants, while Poseidon looked to be forty or so, normal tanned skin with a Hawaiian printed shirt and Bermuda shorts.

Seph wryly wondered what would happen if demigods starred bowing to mortal looking gods on the streets of New York. Shaking the irrelevant thought out of her head, she got to her feet, never taking her eyes off of her dad or Hermes.

"Father, lord Poseidon," Skylar said, "why have you brought us here."

"We figured we'd save you the trip," Hermes said, a small smile played on both of their lips, letting the demigods know that they weren't angry.

"Then you know why we're here, my lords," Seph said slowly.

Both gods nodded, "We were talking to lady Athena about that very subject while you were listening to my daughter's excellent scheme," Hermes said, sending a wink to Skylar, who flushed slightly at the complement.

"And may I ask what conclusion you have come up with?" Seph questioned.

"You have to understand," Hermes said, "the reason that we have kept memories from you is because we didn't want you to drive yourself to madness and we didn't want you to think of yourselves as incompetent." He looked at Seph, "Especially you. You're already having issues with stress."

The daughter of Poseidon flushed and looked at the ground, hating herself for being weak.

"As we were talking to Athena," Poseidon said, "we all agreed with her that it was a calculated risk, but a few people need their memories back, this war may just depend on it. Our advisors need them back, first and foremost, and a few other key players in the prophecy."

Seph and Skylar looked at each other in confusion before looking at their fathers. "Be warned," Poseidon said, "the rush of memories that you are going to receive is going to cause you to black out. You'll both wake up in a few hours in your own beds, completely fine."

"Before any of this happens," Seph said quickly. "Which ones are we?"

Hermes and Poseidon looked at each other before looking back at Seph and Skylar. "We'll talk about that a little bit later," the god of thieves said.

Seph nodded and sighed, "I'm ready."

"Me too," Skylar agreed.

**MCKENNA:**

Oliver was pointing his weapon at the first person who came into the room. McKenna recognized the shaggy mane of brown hair and the muscular frame. "Matt!" she couldn't help but yelp.

He winked at McKenna before turning back around and looking at Oliver. "Don't be stupid, Oliver, you can shoot me, but Claire happens to be good at throwing that dagger of hers."

"Leave while you can," Oliver snarled. "My army'll be here soon."

"You don't need an army," Matt said softly. "Man, what happened to you?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Oliver demanded. "You don't know me!"

"Yeah I do," Matt said calmly. "You've been my friend since the second grade."

"You must have me confused with someone else," Oliver said coldly. McKenna saw his grip slack somewhat on the bow. Matt must have as well, because the son of Ares jumped forward and knocked the weapon out of his hand.

Matt's hand found Oliver's collar and he slammed said son of Apollo against the nearest wall roughly. "Damn it, Oliver, I don't have you confused with anyone else! You're Oliver Anthony Evans, twenty one years old, blood type A positive, and kickass with a bow and arrow! I met you in second grade when you were being bullied by Albert Spenser, when I was sixteen, you gave me this," Matt roughly gestured to the scar on his neck. "We both live in a two story house in Nevada, where you were kidnapped and brainwashed two summers ago!"

Oliver blinked at Matt uncomprehendingly.

McKenna shakily got to her feet as Claire and Rachel ran over, letting Matt take care of his friend. "We don't have that much time," Rachel said hurriedly. "What's wrong with him?" she nodded at Zach.

"Broken leg, and other bones... the leg might be our most pressing problem at the moment though," McKenna said. "A giant knocked him out, but he'd already banished Antaeus to Tartarus."

Claire was digging through her bag silently. She let out a small victory sound as she found what she was looking for. She pulled out a canteen. "Give him some nectar," she threw McKenna the container. "It should help him."

McKenna nodded dutifully and began dripping the godly drink into Zach's mouth.

**CLAIRE:**

She walked away from Rachel and McKenna and back over to Oliver and Matt. The son of Apollo was silent as Matt wrapped his large hand around his throat in frustration. "Damn it, Oliver!" he exclaimed. "I know you know me, now remember!"

"I can't!" Oliver finally yelled in frustration. "I can't remember a single thing!"

"Oliver!" Matt roared. "Listen to me, damn it! The people that you work for have tortured and brainwashed you into submission! I have been looking for you for over two years! I'm not leaving without you!"

"I don't belong anywhere else!" Oliver yelled, shoving Matt away from him, but the son of Ares wasn't to be deterred.

"Oliver," Claire said gently, walking over and standing beside Matt and placing a placating hand on her boyfriend's wrist. "You belong with us. Matt's your brother, man. You can't just ignore that."

"I'm not ignoring anything," Oliver seethed. "I just don't know what you're talking about!"

"Oliver," Matt said. "You're my partner, my best friend, my brother! How do you not remember anything?"

"How can I?" Oliver demanded.

"What about Alexandria?" Matt questioned hotly. "You remember her, the funeral that you didn't show up at?"

Oliver blinked, frowning as if he was in pain. "Stop," he said quietly.

Matt ignored him and just kept on going. "And the day after the service. When you showed up and tried to recruit me for me Titan's army. How I begged you for death-"

"Stop!" Oliver snapped his hands coming off Matt's wrists and onto his head, massaging his temples as if he was warding off a headache.

Matt once again ignored him, pressing on yet again. "You sliced my chest open! Sparing my life. You saved me," Matt said. "You've saved so many people! Yet, you killed innocent mortals and demigods. You've killed people who wanted to better the world!"

"STOP!" Oliver yelled, his voice so loud and filled with pain that it broke right into the middle of the word, leaving the rest of it to sound hoarse and desperate.

The son of Apollo slumped forward, his face in his hands as he shook violently, the only thing keeping him up was Matt's hold on him. He gently lowered Oliver down to the ground.

Everyone was silent for a few moments, out of the corner of her eye, she saw McKenna helping a drowsy Zach stand up, stumbling slightly as the son of Hades tripped clumsily over his own feet. The three quest members walked over. "Rachel," McKenna said quietly. "Watch Zach. I'll get Daedalus."

McKenna ran off to the other room, closing the door behind her. Claire's eyes turned back to Oliver, and she gave the lost son of Apollo her full attention. As she did, she saw a heartbreakingly sorry sight. Oliver was sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest and his hands covering his face, breathing harshly and shaking. Almost as soon as she looked, he started calming slightly, his hands slid down his face and he looked at Matt, his eyes seemed to be a paler blue, closer to the color that she remembered him having. "Matthew," Oliver said, calling his friend by his actual name, which he used to to when he was grateful or exasperated. "You are truly an asshole."

A faint smile played on his lips as he closed his suddenly tired eyes for a moment. "I remember everything," he confessed, "but I don't like it. I imagine I have about ten thousand death warrants on my head."

"You have nothing to worry about, Oliver," Claire said firmly. "This isn't your fault."

"Yes it is, Claire," Oliver said, getting to his feet. "I know what I did, the pain that I've caused, the lives that I've ruined. All because I was too weak to fight against it!" he lashed out, spin kicking a table that was filled with strange pieces of equipment, for what Claire didn't know, all of them fell to the floor with a loud crash, breaking into tiny pieces. The loud noise echoed through the room, leaving them all in an even heavier silence.

Claire and Matt took a step back, observing Oliver, who was agitatedly pacing in between them and Rachel and Zach. The other pair was watching them with equally worried expressions, both were obviously unsure of how to respond. Was there even a way to respond? The man knew what he'd done.

"The girl," Oliver said, stopping in his tracks instantly, turning to look at Matt and Claire, showing off a new scar that he hadn't had the last time Claire had seen him. It was only thin, but it reached across his face, from his left eyebrow to the top of his neck, like a crescent. "Persephone... I infected her with a control serum on Olympus... what happened to her?"

Matt grimaced and Claire winced slightly. "She has no memories," it was Zach speaking. "James Tempest, her boyfriend at the time, had to electrocute her."

Oliver nodded, "She's the child of the prophecy, she needs to be protected at all costs, the Tyrants want to get ahold of her and do to her what they did to me. If they do... there's no hope, whatsoever."

Silence dominated the room as everyone drank that specific piece of information. Claire almost jumped out of her skin as she heard a slight creaking noise. She flinched and spun around, seeing McKenna walking out of the room, slowly followed by a worn and tired looking old man. He was dressed in rags, and his face was smudged to the point that Claire was unsure if he'd been able to take a bath since his release from the Underworld. McKenna grimaced at them and said softly, "I heard the end of what Oliver said. We need to go before my sister gets into some serious trouble."

"Agreed," Claire said, she looked at Oliver and held her hand out toward him, a half-smile on her lips. "Are you ready to come back over to the good guys?"

Oliver looked at her, his blue eyes seemed to hold something akin to confusion. Before she could ask what was wrong, he'd shoved past her arm and scooped her up into a vary affectionate hug, squeezing her tightly. Claire found herself laughing as she returned the hug, "Its good to have my archer back," she mumbled.

When Oliver let go of her, he turned and embraced Matt in a man hug, full of laughable awkwardness. "Let's go," Oliver said, "I imagine that the mortal is clear-sighted."

"Its Rachel," the Oracle said, smiling at him. "And yes, I am."

He made a simple gesture for her to lead the way, Rachel walked forward, a small smile on her face. Claire knew why, it was the same reason that tthe daughter of Hermes was smiling, it was because for once, things seemed to be going right.

**Shorter chapter... I know, but it just seemed like such a good place to leave off! Review and I'll go out of my way to update quickly. Oh and please forgive errors... It's pretty early in the morning. (And Booklover113, you get a preview of the next chapter)**

_**Preview:**_

_**She felt herself calm slightly and she closed her eyes, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was alive. "I died," it was the first sentence to come out of her mouth. Those two words were enough to throw Percy off guard. "I died... I failed... I... I..." she closed her mouth and got out of the bed, pushing past her brother, who was too frozen in shock to do anything. Thanking Poseidon for keeping her in her traveling clothes instead of her pajamas.**_


	11. World so Cold

**SEPH:**

She woke up with a headache. She felt woozy and nauseated. Stumbling slightly, she managed to stand up. She noticed that Percy as sound asleep. That changed, of course, as Seph tripped over her own off balance feet and landed on the ground with a loud thud. She groaned as the pain in her head increased. She felt as though she wanted to rid her stomach of its contents, but she wasn't sure when she'd last ate. She weakly tried to crawl to her bed and get back in it without alerting her brother, that dream flew out the window as someone's arm wrapped around her and she felt herself being picked up like a ragdoll. She looked up and saw Percy standing there, looking at her worriedly.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I just tripped," she said,feeling shocked by how rough her voice sounded.

He walked forward and deposited her on to her bed before backing up and scratching his head, obviously trying to figure her out. "Its time to get up anyways," he stifled a yawn. "You sounded a bit hoarse... you want some water or something?"

Seph shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

"What happened yesterday?" Percy questioned. "You woke up, that much was obvious, but I couldn't find you anywhere around camp and I was worried... you know, 'cause of your stress... Anyways, I came into the cabin around nine o'clock last night and you were asleep. What were you doing that was so important that you couldn't check and let me know where you were? I mean normally I wouldn't care, but if McKenna found out that I lost you, I might lose my head. I hope it was important."

Oh boy was it ever important. The impact of the previous night hit her like a sludge hammer, she doubled over, her stomach pressed tightly against her legs as her hands gripped at her face, trying desperately to find something solid to hold on to so she'd be able to separate visions and strange memories from what was actually happening to her.

The gods getting cast down into Tartarus. Her and James trying to get the mortals to safety before the waves of monsters hit. Leaving everyone for a huge and abandoned city. Fighting to survive every day. Finally seeing James again. Her brain hit a complete halt as she remembered him kissing her and holding her, she craved it at that moment, that feeling of absolute security. Memories zipped past her like a movie on fast forward.

She'd been controlled by a serum of some sort and James had refused to leave her side. She had to fight back tears at the thought. She'd turned on them so easily, going from protecting them, to her consciousness being locked away, only able to watch the horrors that her body was unleashing against her friends. She felt her breath hitch as she lived through cutting Skylar down, a small sob escaped her lips at the thought. Then the pure agony that she had only felt for a few seconds, but she knew what those convulsions meant. James had told her that he had sacrificed so much in the war, and now she knew how... he had killed her.

"Seph?" Percy said. She heard him drop to his knees in front of her. His hands were on her shoulders and he was saying something. She didn't register his words, her mind had other things to occupy itself at that moment.

It stopped as quickly as it'd started. She felt herself calm slightly and she closed her eyes, trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was alive. "I died," it was the first sentence to come out of her mouth. Those two words were enough to throw Percy off guard. "I died... I failed... I... I..." she closed her mouth and got out of the bed, pushing past her brother, who was too frozen in shock to do anything. Thanking Poseidon for keeping her in her traveling clothes instead of her pajamas.

She needed some time alone, just to gather her thoughts, she felt as though she was coming apart at the seems. All of the experience that she'd forgotten that she'd had was helping her keep herself in one piece, but every face that she saw, especially the ones that had defected or died when Olympus fell, caused a wave of pain to go through her. She closed her eyes and tried to calm her breathing, looking at the lush green grass or the vast bright blue sky, trying to keep her mind off her troubles.

She already knew what she was going to have to do, but she just didn't want to admit it, she felt weak just thinking about it. Sighing in defeat, she walked over to the Big House where Chiron would be. The centaur was out on the large front porch of the blue building. He was looking out into the strawberry fields, where Seph saw the small figures of the Demeter Cabin who'd bailed on breakfast to tend to their precious crops. She walked into the shade of the Big House, and out of the heat of the sun. She gave Chiron her best smile and leaned against the railing of the porch, crossing her arms over her chest and remained silent, contemplating the best way to broach the subject.

"Can I help you, Ms. Current?" Chiron asked, turning his head so that he was facing her instead. The ADHD side of her was looking at the hair that was moving across the small bald spot in the middle of his head due to the light breeze.

She blinked herself out of her daydream and sighed, "Yeah, Chiron, you can."

"What is the problem?" the centaur smiled at her kindly.

"I..." she trailed off and looked away from him, across the camp and to the pavilion. She saw her friends waiting in line... Skylar, the girl she'd killed, James... her heart climbed into her throat as she thought of the very name. She closed her eyes and composed herself, ignoring the vicious stinging behind her eyelids. Taking a very unsteady breath to steady herself, she turned back around and looked at Chiron, "I want to go home."

"Seph," Chiron said, looking at her skeptically, "we're in the beginning of our summer program. This is the time of year that you train, the time of year that you, of all people, need to be here. May I inquire the sudden urge to leave?"

"I-I need to get away for a little while," Seph said, "to clear my head. Please."

"I cannot make you stay here," Chiron said. "Get packed and I shall call you a cab."

"No need for that," Seph said, "I'll just call my parents to come and get me."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**SKYLAR:**

Skylar shot up in her bed, breathing heavily. She grabbed her head with both hands, and shut her eyes tightly, memories washing over her. She knew she'd been missing out on something, but she had absolutely no clue it would be this bad.

She had died.

Seph, her best friend, had killed her. Not that she blamed her, since she had been under the influence of the serum Oliver had forced on her, but it was sure to put a damper on their daily conversations for a while. She couldn't imagine what must be going through Seph's head right now. Getting all those memories back at once and remembering what happened, well Skylar could definitely relate.

Will had to leave her, during her last moments alive, a situation so painfully familiar that it instantly brought back memories from their first quest to save the fleece. Skylar remembered the period of time after her memory had been erased, when Will had refused to let her out of his sight for almost a month. She hadn't understood why at the moment, but now…

And James… Gods, he had to kill his own girlfriend to save Skylar. The amount of guilt weighing down on her was unbearable. As far as she could remember, nobody, absolutely nobody, had the same effect on James as Seph did. To have loved her, and killed her, and to remember on top of that when she didn't, for a whole year… James was much stronger than she had ever given him credit for.

Shakily pulling herself together and jumping off her top bunk, she glanced around at her still soundly sleeping siblings, many of which had died before the battle for Olympus had even begun.

They remembered, didn't they? Of course, it was only her and Seph that had been kept out of the loop. It seemed that towards the beginning, everyone in camp had been stepping on eggshells around the two of them, before settling into a more relaxed, albeit awkward, understanding.

Quickly getting ready, she stepped outside of the cabin and looked around. It was still a bit early in the morning, and most campers were still sleeping, other than the Apollo cabin, being early risers of course. Kayla sent her a wave as she leaned on a tree near the Ares cabin, probably waiting for Mark. Skylar sent her a weak smile and a halfhearted wave in response.

She glanced over at the Poseidon and Zeus cabin, wondering how Seph and James were going to fare with all that had happened. Just as she was about to walk over to Kayla to ask where her brother was, Will showed up a few feet away, with a cute lopsided smile on his face.

Immediately upon seeing him, Skylar ran down the stairs and tackled him into a hug, burying her face in his chest. "Woah, hey Sky," he laughed, hugging her tightly.

"Hi," she mumbled incoherently, not moving.

He must have sensed something was up, because he pulled back, keeping his hands wrapped around her, and looked at her. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Nothing," she lied, "I just had a nightmare." It wasn't fully a lie, since those memories might as well have been a nightmare, or so she tried to convince herself.

Skylar tried to maintain a poker face as Will looked at her skeptically. As a daughter of Hermes, she usually didn't even have to try halfway to tell a decent lie, but with the son of Apollo, he was the one person who saw right through all of that, all of her walls. "Alright," he said, "well then let's go eat."

They took the long way to the pavilion, walking slowly. Skylar gripped on to Will's hand tightly and she could see him giving her worried looks every few minutes, but decided to pretend she didn't notice. Most people were awake by then.

As they walked to the end of the line, she shuddered as she remembered the army of monsters that invaded camp a month after the Olympians' downfall. She remembered Seph leaving to go to the city by herself, and going to the makeshift town for demigods with Will and James, and Avery.

After the tenth glance Will gave her, he pulled her to the side, and forced her to look at him. "Okay, what's up? You're acting different. Did something happen? In your dream?" The look on his face made it clear that he wasn't forcing her to say anything, but he was eventually get it out of her one way or another.

She bit her lip and looked down. "I just…" she began hoarsely. Looking back up and clearing her throat, she continued, "I talked to my dad. Turns out I missed out on a bunch of stuff." She gave a small laugh, as tears began to well up in her eyes.

Will's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped. "Skylar…" he said, before she cut him off.

A few tears dropped as she talked. "It wasn't some sort of screwed up happy ending after what happened with Mormo. We… we lost, and people died. And somehow, we managed to fight back through that hell and win, even though I didn't know that for the past year. Because I died. I died. Right now I'm just trying to sort everything through my head, but one thing I know for sure is that we have all gone through hell and back, and that this better end soon. I just… well yeah. I remember everything."

She wiped her tears away with her hand, and they stood in silence for a minute, Skylar looking at some cloud off in the distance, and Will focused on her. Hearing someone walking up to the two, they looked up to find James' questioning look as he saw Skylar's puffy eyes.

**JAMES:**

He walked up to the breakfast line slowly and saw Skylar and Will talking quietly at the end of it. He stood beside the couple and caught the last two words out of Skylar's mouth: '_remember everything.'_

"James," Skylar said, looking at the son of Jupiter with a weary light in her blue eyes. "You know you're one of my best friends, right?"

The son of Jupiter blinked and looked at Will in confusion. Said son of Apollo looked at him with a slightly worried look in his eyes. James turned back to look at Skylar and responded in a slow and confused voice, "Yes."

Skylar threw her arms around his waist in a bonecrushing hug that knocked the breath out of him. James froze for a second before awkwardly hugging her back. He looked at Will questioningly. The son of Apollo mouthed one word that made him feel as though the world had slipped from beneath his feet, "Memories."

"You-you remember?" James asked softly.

James felt her nod against his chest before she pulled away from him and gave him a sad smile, "I... I remember what you did for me." A small tear slid down her cheek. "McKenna tried to tell me that you were hurting more than all of us. I never realized what she meant. You sacrificed everything just to try and keep me safe," he felt her arms wrap around him again, her tears wetting his shirt. "I am so sor-"

"Don't say it," James said softly, squeezing her back. "You're one of the first true friends I've ever had, Sky. If it wasn't for you, I doubt I'd have anything that I do now."

"But James," Skylar said, sniffling slightly. "You had to kill her! I-"

"Skylar," James said firmly, "I may be in love with Seph, but I still love you. You're like my sister, so shut up and go hug your boyfriend."

Skylar puller away from him and looked up at him with wide eyes, which were slightly bloodshot. "Seph remembers too."

James froze, blinking rapidly. He didn't say another word, he just spun around and darted off. He made it to the Poseidon cabin in less than a minute, record time. He didn't even bother to stop, he opened the door and walked in as though he owned the place. He saw Seph closing her traveling bag, her chest at the foot of her bed was open and completely empty.

"What are you doing?" James asked quietly.

Seph jumped slightly, turning around. As soon as she saw him, he heard her breath hitch and she immediately looked at the floor. "I need some time to think," she said, he heard her voice shaking despite that she was speaking in a barely audible whisper.

"Seph-" James tried to say something, but the daughter of Poseidon didn't seem to want to hear it.

"Not right now, James," she cut him off. "I just can't."

"You can't, or you won't," James said quietly.

"Jame-"

"Damn it, Seph," James said angrily. "I've had it with the excuses and the games! I understand that I haven't been the best toward you-"

She stiffened before looking up at him, fury deep within her eyes, and cutting him off, "That's a bit of an understatement, don't you think?"

James felt himself falter slightly under her harsh stare. Self-confidence came to him a moment later and he said, "What are you talking about?"

She didn't answer, she just stalked toward him until they were maybe five inches apart. He didn't even see her hand move, but he felt the sting it caused right across his cheek.

"Ouch!" he shouted, taking a step back, clutching his cheek, which was most likely an angry red color. "What the hell was that?" He demanded.

If it was possible, his question seemed to make her even angrier. She stalked toward him again, her hand tensed. This time James was expecting it though. He caught her by the wrist in midswing and kept it in place firmly between them. She slammed her other hand against his chest angrily, trying to shove him away. "Let go of me!" she snapped.

"Not until you tell me what in the name of Jupiter's going on!" James said, trying to keep his tone calm, and failing miserably. "Did I do something wrong?"

"You're damn right you did!" she said, a tear falling down her cheek, she slammed the side of her fist into the front of his chest, making it throb painfully, while trying to wrench her other arm free.

He brought his free hand up and quickly grasped her chin. He held it firmly so she couldn't remove it from his grasp. He forced her to look up at him, but she kept her eyes downcast, taking her free hand and wiping the tear away. "Do you mind," James said softly, but an edge of exasperation was clearly heard, even to him, "telling me what the hell I did, so I can at least apologize for it?"

She remained silent, another a few more tears coming from her eyes as she blinked.

"Look at me," James murmured.

She ignored him yet again, still looking down and tears were slowly leaking down her face. Each one was like a stab wound in his chest, all he wanted was for her to stop and feel better.

"Seph," he said more forcefully. "Damn it, Seph. Look. At. Me!"

Her eyes slowly made their way up, they were puffy and red from the tears. Seeing her so distraught was tearing him apart. That seemed to be her breaking point. "You knew!" she screamed. "You knew everything!"

James' insides turned to ice as he realized what she was talking about. He stopped breathing and he wouldn't have been surprised if his heart had stopped beating too. He let go of her face and wrist. She slapped him yet again, but James barely felt it. "You treated me like a stranger! Cruel and indifferent toward me! Why? Huh, James, why would you treat me like that? When you claimed to love me so much, why did you treat me like dirt for a year?"

James felt his freezing cold insides go from numb to a burning heat. "Don't you dare question the way I feel about you!" he growled.

"What do you expect me to do then?" Seph demanded. "Because I just don't know! How am I supposed to know you felt anything?"

James glared at her for a moment before saying, "Because when I do this," he grabbed her face in his hands and placed his lips against hers in a soft kiss. Pulling back quickly, he looked in her shocked eyes and said, "Does it feel like an act to you?"

Seph looked at him, mouth agape. She blinked dumbly at him, and James thought that maybe she was okay... that was before he felt another stinging pain in his cheek. He took a deep breath and slowly released it, closing his eyes, trying desperately to control his boiling temper. "I don't know what to tell you," James said quietly, backing away from her, inhaling deeply yet again. "I still love you, Seph, that's not going to change anytime in the near future. I screwed up royally, and I understand that you don't want to be around me right now, but what about everyone else, huh, McKenna, Will, Skylar-"

Seph immediately paled at the last name. "Oh gods," she whispered, sliding to the floor against her bunk-bed. "Skylar. How... how can I even look at her? Or Will?"

She sounded as though she was talking mostly to herself. "It's a good thing I'm going home..."

"You can't keep running away with your responsibilities, Seph!" James snapped, turning to go to the door. "I don't know what to tell you. I came to you, didn't I?"

"That's different," Seph said quietly.

"How is it different?" James yelled, turning back around to face her. "How is me killing you any damn well different than that? If anything it's worse! I was in my right mind!"

She looked at him and she stared back, understanding seemed to dawn in her eyes.

"You know what Seph," James said, shrugging his shoulders in resignation. "To hell with all this. I give up," he said with an exasperated laugh. "Never thought I'd ever hear myself say those words!" he shook his head. "Who am I to stop you from running away," the next sentence he said seemed to sever all emotions, finally cutting himself clean from her, "You've made it clear that whatever we had before, we sure as hell don't have now."

Without waiting for a response that he didn't even care enough to hear, he walked out of the cabin. He turned around and hauled his fist at the rough and rocky exterior. He felt his knuckles crack on impact and the skin open. He didn't mind though, the pain made him think clearer.

**MATT:**

They made it out of the Maze and into the forest without a hitch. Rachel had managed to evade the army that was after them and had brought everyone to safety. After everyone was out of the tunnel/hole in the ground, they made a break for the cabins area. The trees seemed to fly by as they got thinner and thinner. In no time they were telling Chiron what happened and introducing the new camper.

"Not a new camper," Oliver said as they were standing on the porch. He crossed his arms stubbornly. "I'm not staying here."

"Then where are you going to go?" Claire demanded hotly, frowning at the son of Apollo.

Before Oliver could respond, McKenna cut everyone else off, "Ima go and tell everyone else that we're back!"

She dashed off and Zach and Rachel wearily followed. Oliver looked at Claire and calmly answered as if nothing else had been said. "I don't belong here."

"Yes you do!" Claire said, pleading with him slightly. "I don't know what it is that you don't understand, but you belong here. We all care about you!"

"It's not important! Not now, we have more pressing matters," Oliver insisted.

"Something is wrong?" Chiron inquired.

"Seph," Matt said, wanting desperately to facepalm, he felt like an idiot for forgetting so quickly. "She can't leave the camp."

Chrion looked at the boy curiously, "It's too late for that, son. She's-"

"GUYS!" Chiron was cut off by a frantic McKenna. "Seph's gone!"

Matt exhaled slowly, bringing his hand up to facepalm. He slowly let it slide down his face and to his side as he looked at the centaur. "Where is she?"

"I imagine she's home in lower Manhattan," he mused. "She doesn't want to be here."

"It isn't about what she wants," Oliver snapped. "It's about her safety."

McKenna came running up the steps and looked frantically around at the group of them, her eyes finally fixed on Oliver, "James is coming and he isn't happy."

"I'm sure he'll listen to reason," Oliver said calmly.

Everyone else looked at him as if he'd fallen out of space. "My dear boy," Chiron said. "I have mentored Mr. Tempest for two years and I have learned that listening to reason isn't one of his strong suits."

"He doesn't have a choice," Matt finally said in resignation. "Is there anyone who could calm him down? That way he doesn't try to murder anyone?"

"Two things," Claire said quietly. "There's only one person and she's gone, and it's too late anyway."

Matt saw that she was looking past him, turning so that he was following her gaze, he saw a sight that made him want to curse. James was walking toward them at a fast pace, his skin was sparking and his hair was sticking out slightly. "Damn it," Matt muttered. "Stay here, guys, let me see if I can convince him to calm down."

He ignored the good luck looks from the others and jogged down the stairs toward the son of Jupiter. "James," he said as he got in front of him. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I don't plan on it," James said his voice quavered with barely suppressed rage. "I plan on doing something completely justified."

"No," Matt said. "You know that he's innocent!"

"What I know," James said, his voice raising slightly, "is that he ruined my life! I know that he injected Seph with a control serum and she tried to kill me and succeeded in killing Skylar!"

"Do you blame Seph for what she did?" Matt demanded.

"I don't have time for this," James said, moving to shove past Matt. The son of Ares caught him by the shoulder and shoved him back into place, refusing to show pain at the amount of electricity that zapped his skin.

**OLIVER:**

He raced off the porch as he saw the tension between the two hot-headed guys escalate even higher than it already was. He saw two more people racing toward them, Skylar and Will. He ignored the two newcomers and focused on what Matt was saying. "Answer the question, damn it!"

"I swear, Matt," James said, Oliver saw a dangerous flash in his eyes. Compared to Matt, James was small, but Oliver knew that he could handle himself just fine. "If you don't get the hell out of my way-"

"What are you going to do?" Matt demanded. "Fry me? Huh? You're gonna get past me and take your anger at the fact that you completely failed with Seph out on an innocent person?"

Oliver saw James tense up and he knew what was about to happen. Before either of them could make a move, he rammed his shoulder into Matt's side, knocking him out of the way, so that he was face to face with James. "This isn't your problem, Matt," Oliver said, not taking his eyes off the son of Jupiter. "Its between him and me." He took a deep breath and said, "I understand that you hate me and I don't blame you. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of myself at the moment. We need to get this over with though, because if we can't work together, then what happened before is going to happen again, only this time, there won't be a reset button."

He saw the anger in James' eyes die a little and confusion take its place. "What the hell are you talking about?" James demanded.

"Your girlfriend is in-"

"Thanks to you," James said coldly, "she isn't my girlfriend."

"Damn it, James!" McKenna snapped, her hand contacting the back of his head sharply, just as Skylar and Will ran up. "Listen to him!"

The son of Jupiter glared at her but remained silent at he turned at looked at Oliver. "Seph's in trouble," he started, he saw James opening his mouth to respond so he hurriedly continued, "I wasn't in control of my actions when I hurt her, and they're gonna do the same to her if they get to her!"

"What do you mean by that?" James questioned, confused.

"They tortured me," Oliver said, "and Ate brainwashed me until I allowed her to invade my mind. It was almost like she possessed me."

"You can IM Seph," came Chiron's voice behind Oliver. The son of Apollo jumped slightly and turned around. "But she doesn't want to be here and you're not going to make her come back against her will."

"Skylar, McKenna," James said, "you IM her and pass the message on, she'll actually talk to you."

"What happened?" McKenna demanded.

"We got memories back," Skylar replied. "She remembers everything."

"That's great!" McKenna exclaimed happily. "Why can't you talk to her, James?"

"Long story," James muttered, looking at the ground. "Doesn't matter, though. Just make sure she's safe."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**MCKENNA:**

She looked at Skylar and gave her a halfhearted smile. "I'm glad you remember, it was strange to remember when you and Seph didn't."

"Yeah," Skylar said. She rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly and sighed, looking around at their small group of people.

"What's wrong, Skylar?" James demanded.

"I don't want to talk to Seph over an IM," she said calmly. "Not when I know what's happened. I need to talk in person."

"You're gonna have to wait a while for that " Matt said.

"Its okay," Claire said, giving them all a smile, "I'll go with you." She slung an arm around McKenna's shoulder and they both walked toward the Poseidon cabin.

When they made it to the large rock fountain, which created a rainbow if the person stood at the right angle. Claire fished a drachma out of her pocket and flicked it in the mist. "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Persephone Current, daughter of Poseidon, somewhere in Manhattan.

An image of a woman putting a suitcase into a closet showed up, and McKenna was wondering if there was another daughter of Poseidon by the name of Persephone was in Manhattan. She was only confused for a second before she saw Seph behind her, shutting the door. "I'm so glad to see you home, dear," the woman that McKenna figured was her mother.

"Yeah," Seph said, smiling. McKenna knew that smile. It was a forced one. Seph must have seen them out of the corner of her eye, because she stiffened fractionally.

"Mom," she said. "I heard you got a new dog."

"Yes, I did," her mother exclaimed. "Her name is Ally. Let me go and get her!"

As the older woman walked out of the room, Seph ran toward them and looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Can I help you?"

McKenna rolled her eyes, "No, but we can help you."

"What do you mean?" Seph demanded. "If this is about me leave-"

"We'll talk about that later," McKenna said, not realizing how angry she was until then. "You're in trouble."

Seph snorted. "What do you mean, 'in trouble?'"

"I mean Elizabeth, Ate, and their army of psychotic goons are after you," McKenna said.

"What?" Seph questioned.

"You need to watch your back," Claire said. "Be ready for attacks."

Seph nodded in agreement, "I think I can do that. But what's this all about?"

"You're wanted for brainwashing," Claire clarified. "They're gonna try to force you onto their side."

Seph closed her eyes, "Alright. I'll watch after myself. But I can't come back... not yet anyways."

McKenna opened her mouth to respond, but the mist was already flickering, so instead she said. "IM every day when you get up and before you go to bed."

She had time to see Seph nod in agreement before the image completely dissolved. The daughter of Poseidon took a shaky breath and had to bite back from a scream of frustration. Things couldn't possibly get any worse.

**The title of the chapter is 'World so Cold' which is the name of a song by Three Days Grace. It kinda fit the chapter... to me anyway. Soo... sorry for the late update! And Skylar's awesome POV was written by Skylar herself. Hope you enjoy it and leave a thought behind before leaving!**

_**Preview:**_

_**"Things are getting worse, Chiron," he snapped, "Hades and Persephone haven't been seen in over a month, we all know what's going on down there! Seph hasn't contacted us in two days. I'm not willing to risk the war again!"**_


	12. Six Months Later

**This is going to be a long fic, lol. It isn't even close to being finished! So I'm breaking it into parts.**

_**Part II: Happy Holidays**_

_**6 months later (mid December)**_

**JAMES:**

He laid in his bed, it was Saturday and he was numbly thinking about just how bad everything had gotten. Since Seph left, he'd fallen into some kind of fog of pain. He could tell that his friends were worried about him and that they were only silent about it because they knew if they voiced their worries, he'd deny them and cut himself off completely.

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair as he thought of other non personal events that had taken place, causing him even more stress. Hades and Persephone hadn't been seen in two months, and the troops from the Tyrant's army were marching into the Underworld, taking it over. He sat up and flung his long legs over the bed frame and sat there hunched over, face resting in his hands, his elbows on his knees. He pushed himself up and cracked his neck. Looking around, he saw that Jason was nowhere to be seen, probably walking around somewhere with Piper.

He grabbed his clothes and started throwing them on, not really paying attention to what he was wearing. Just as he was pulling his shirt over his head, the door flew open and McKenna ran in. "What the hell?" James demanded. "I was getting dressed!"

"You're fine," McKenna rolled her eyes. "I imagine I've seen worse than you in your boxers."

James resisted the urge to facepalm as he looked at her. It was clear that she was distressed. Her hair was knotted, and the long sleeve hoodie and grey sweat pants was a sure sign that she'd woken up shortly before, not even getting dressed before coming over. "So what do you need?"

"It's about Seph," she sighed. "Its been two full days since we've had a message from her."

James chanted the same line through his head over and over, _'I don't care. I don't care. I don't care...'_

McKenna must have taken his silence as a signal to go on. "The last time I heard from her, it was the last day of school before winter break began for her."

"McKenna," James sighed, turning away from her and walking over to his bunk. Settling down, he looked up at her, she had her arms crossed over her chest as if she was expecting him to say something stupid. "What do you want me to do about it? I have no control over her. You're forgetting that we probably aren't even considered friends anymore."

"James," McKenna said exasperatedly. "Will you listen to yourself? You just asked me what I wanted you to do! That isn't the James Tempest I know and it isn't the one that you know either."

"I don't know what you want from me, Suave " James said quietly. "I don't know what I'm supposed to be-"

"You're supposed to be James Tempest, arrogant ass, confident jerk, and a reliable leader of a friend," McKenna growled. James wasn't looking at her, he was looking down at the floor beneath his feet silently.

James felt a familiar fire blaze in his chest at her words, but the passion didn't stay uncovered for too long, he felt himself thinking again, about everything that he'd put up with for the past year and a half (almost three if he counted when Olympus fell) since Seph had come into his life, and it made him tired at just the thought. Maybe it just wasn't worth it.

"James," McKenna said. "Where's the fight in you? You've put up with so much. Most people would have gone insane, but you're not most people. The girl you love is out there somewhere and she's possibly in danger, are you really going to give up now knowing that she still loves you."

James blinked and looked back up at McKenna, his eyebrows scrunched together in a frown, "What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid, James," McKenna said. "Seph wouldn't have gotten so upset over everything if she didn't have feelings for you too."

"It doesn't matter about who feels what," James said, already standing up and going over to his chest. He felt the same fiery warmth in his chest yet again. He had a purpose and he was going to keep Seph safe.

He had a bag packed in seconds, and McKenna was looking at him with hope in her eyes. "Where are you going?"

"Lower Manhattan," he replied tersely, as he slipped on his hoodie, shouldered his bag, and walked out the door, McKenna following behind him hurriedly.

"Just let me go and-"

"No," James cut her off as he made it to the pine tree. "You're not going."

"The hell I'm not," McKenna snapped. "That's my sister!"

"McKenna," James said, whirling around and grabbing her by the shoulders. "Look at me."

She glared at him, trying to shake him off, reminding him so much of Seph half a year ago.

"Listen to me, I know she's your sister, but its dangerous. I don't know if she's..." the words cut off in his throat, so he tried a different approach. "You need to be safe. She's the child of the prophecy, but you're just as important. The prophecy is happening, I talked to Rachel about it and she agrees. We have a lot riding on this and if Seph..." he choked a bit but managed to finish the sentence, "if Seph dies then we still need you. Besides the Underworld has been getting worse lately, more and more monsters have been terrorizing people and they need you here."

James closed his eyes and let out a long and drawn out sigh. "I've been an ass lately, I know I have. I'm sorry. I know this is gonna sound like I'm being one again, but I have to do this on my own."

McKenna nodded at him and gave threw her arms around him in a hug. "Make sure she's safe."

James squeezed her back tightly and murmured, "I will."

Without another word, James broke away from her and sprinted down the hill and toward the nearest camp van.

**ELIZABETH:**

It was a good day. She looked around at the house that she was in, the beautiful palace that was Hades. Her mother had been called from her cave and was expected at any time. Hades and Persephone had been disposed of months before, being cast down into Tartarus, something that she would dearly love go do with another Persephone.

She was sitting on the queen of the Underworld's throne, looking around at the golden floor and black skull decorations that littered the wall, lit up morbidly by flickering torches that were lining the walls. She wasn't deterred by the eerieness of the place, hopefully she wouldn't be there too much longer.

She was brought out of her thoughts by the sound of rapid footsteps. A young girl, she looked maybe twelve, and was obviously a daughter of Hermes, came running into the room. Through ragged breath, she said "Melinoe... is... here..."

Elizabeth nodded to her in acknowledgement, and got up, walking toward the door. Outside, she saw her mother walking, almost gliding, toward her, flickering into different forms as she saw different people with different ghosts.

She felt a smile come to her face as she bowed. Her mother stood before her and another pair of feet came into her view. As she stood straight up, she saw Ate standing beside her. "It is good to see you," the goddess of evil said in the most cheerful voice she'd heard her use. "Its been too long my old friend."

Melinoe smiled at her, and she flickered in form, changing into the half pale woman and other half looked mummified and burnt. "Come in, my ladies," Elizabeth said, dipping her form slightly as she made a moving gesture toward the inside of the house.

"Can we go ahead and get this over with?" Ate questioned. "I have a few places to be for Mother Earth today and haven't much time."

"Am I going to finally figure out why I'm here?" Melinoe asked, impatience obvious in her voice.

Elizabeth didn't say anything, she simply walked over to where Hades' throne was and picked up the box decorated with elaborate paintings of death on it. "Open it and find out if you wish to know, my lady."

Melinoe rolled her eyes... well eye, Elizabeth still wasn't sure about her mother's burnt half. Bending down, the goddess of ghosts grabbed the medium sized package from her and ripped the top open. The look on her face went from annoyed and impatient to pleased and excited. "This is the best gift I've received in millennia, daughter. Thank-you."

Elizabeth felt herself smiling at the compliment, her mother's approval caused warmth to spread through her veins like a wildfire. "Anything for you... mother."

**SEPH:**

Great gods above, she felt like shit. Her stomach and legs were hurting, not to mention her back and her head. Gods her head probably felt worse than all the other pains combined. That monster attack had been bad, how many dracaenae had it been this time? Ten or more. She'd been slashed and stabbed repeatedly, then flash flooded her apartment where the monsters had been in the first place. That explained the reason that she was lying on her back, shivering from the cold.

She blinked hard, trying to get the sleep out of her eyes before pushing herself into a sitting position. She hissed in pain as she heard a cracking noise, which happened to be her back. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to walk in her state and that she would be insane to try. The couch was only a few feet away from her, but her ambrosia was in her room. Awkwardly shifting slightly, she tried to get on her knees and put pressure on one of her legs, but as soon as she did, she felt warmth ooze from a newly found cut beneath her jeans. She cried out in pain and collapsed on the ground again, face first.

Groaning slightly as the pain in her leg dulled down to a small throb, she lifted her head off the wooden flooring and over to the small, black, leather loveseat that was maybe three feet away, but was still out of her reach. The round, wooden coffee table, on the other hand, wasn't. Gritting her teeth against the pain that she knew was going to come next, she pushed herself off the ground, her hands on the shiny and slightly cluttered surface. She awkwardly hobbled the remaining distance, grimacing at the pain that surged through his body every time he moved.

As soon as she was close enough, she grabbed the plush arm of the loveseat and twisting her body so that she collapsed onto the seat, her back against the blissfully comfortable cushions on the back. She took a moment, relishing in her small victory before sighing, what now? Her bedroom, the only spot in the house with Ambrosia, was through the living room, where she was, past the kitchen, and down the hall at the end. She'd never make it.

That's when she almost facepalmed. Taking in a deep breath, she let loose a highpitch whistle. Two seconds later, she heard the sound of nails on the floor and in another second, she saw a Shar Pei standing in front of her, its startling blue eyes were staring at her curiously. "Ally," Seph said weakly.

The wrinkly brown dog barked in recognition of her name.

"Go get my bag."

Ally looked at her for a moment, and Seph prayed that she wasn't about to turn stupid on her. Then she wagged her tail and gave a bark, seconds later, she was zooming down the hall. Seph gave a long sigh and winced at her wounds. When she saw Ally come walking back in, she couldn't help but smile, glad that her parents were nice enough to give her a new pet as a welcome back gift. The dog was dragging a bookbag by the strap behind her. She set the strap in Seph's lap and Seph muttered, "Good girl."

She scratched Ally behind her ears briefly before reaching into her bag. Just as she pulled the Ambrosia squares out, she heard a low growl. Pausing, she looked down at Ally and saw that she was standing rigidly, her hair standing up. The growl turned into a loud bark.

She was facing the doorway, which was behind Seph. The daughter of Poseidon couldn't do anything yet, so she immediately shoved the whole square of ambrosia into her mouth, which probably wasn't the smartest move in the world, but she didn't have much of a choice. The effects were immediate. With her pain gone, she jumped up and her hand went to her wrist, waiting for an attack.

She saw the door knob turning slowly, completely and idioticly unlocked. Ally growled again, and crouched, prepared to spring forward. Seph snapped her fingers and pointed to a spot behind her. Ally immediately backed up, there was no point in her getting hurt if it wasn't necessary. Slowly the door opened, a small creaking sound filled the silent room.

She heard Ally's growls get even louder, but as soon as she saw who it was at the door, she couldn't hear. Heck, she couldn't breath, she was pretty sure her heart stopped beating for a moment, and her brain froze, refusing to process anything. Black hair, blue eyes, tired expression, taller than the last she saw him. She stared at him dumbly for a moment blinking before James broke the silence with something that sounded like a sigh if relief.

"Thank gods, you're safe!" he exclaimed, taking a step forward. She was brought back to reality when she heard Ally bark and dash past her.

"Ally!" Seph snapped, "Stop!"

The Shar Pei froze in place halfway to a startled James. The rumbling coming from the dog was audible enough for it to sound like she was standing right next to Ally. "Go lay down!" she ordered.

The dog walked off, its head hung low. Seph didn't miss the nasty look she gave James before exiting the room. Seph's attention returned back to the son of Jupiter, who had taken yet another step, inviting himself inside. He turned and closed the door, but as he moved to face her again, he began talking. "Do you mind telling me why in the name of Pluto we couldn't get ahold of you for two days?"

"I was preoccupied," Seph remarked, feeling her face flush slightly as she remembered their last conversation half a year earlier. To say it ended on a sour note would have been an understatement.

"Preoccupied?" James repeated loudly, earning a loud growl from the other room. "Too preoccupied to IM your sister and give her some information on how you were? I swear, Current, even if it was a boy, you could have taken some time out of your plans to tell us-"

"Tempest," Seph snapped, "it was not a boy, and it wasn't anything I could have stopped!"

James seemed to really look at her for the first time because as he did, he was opening his mouth for a retort when he shut it. "What happened to you, exactly?" he asked, trying and failing to sound indifferent.

"My parents went to long Island for some business trip and dracaenae came after me like a day later. I killed them all, but I fell and hit my head hard from a wound on my leg and passed out. I just woke up... guess I was out for two days..."

"What wound," James said, walking over and grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her to the couch. Pushing her into a sitting position on the couch her grabbed the bottom of her sweat pants and said, "Which leg?"

"Calm down, Tempest," Seph said, feeling oddly okay with how much he seemed to care. She actually liked it. She placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Its gone."

"How about your head?" he demanded, getting up and kneeling beside her, his knees digging into the plush leather of the cushion. He gently put his hands on her scalp and she felt tingly sensations ripple through her.

"I'm fine," she said after a moment, finally getting her thoughts together. "I already had ambrosia."

"Oh," James said, awkwardness clear in his voice as he sat down beside. "Sorry."

"No problem," Seph muttered. "Thanks for caring."

"No problem," he said in return just as softly.

The awkward silence kicked in after that, neither person knew what to say. For what felt like hours, they both broke the silence with the sound of breathing and the occasional shift in their position, and stared off into space, the tension steadily mounting.

Finally Seph couldn't take it anymore, she turned and looked at James, who's head snapped to look at her a second later. "We can't go on like this," she said.

James blinked at her and for a horrifying second, she thought that she was going to have to explain herself more clearly. Finally he sighed though. "What is there to talk about?"

"A lot," Seph said. "Admit it, you felt just as unsatisfied as I did when we went our separate ways in June." James' face immediately darkened.

"I did," he said slowly, leaning back against the couch cushions, his posture guarded, and his tone made it obvious that he was prepared to fight back anger.

"I was wrong," she informed him. "I've regretted not being brave enough to go after you when you left. I should have been stronger. I'm an embarrassment to all demigods and-"

"Shut up," James said sharply. "Don't talk that way about yourself. You're human, so for the love of the gods act like it for once! Yes, you were completely wrong, but we all make mistakes."

"Your mistakes won't cost us the world as we know it," Seph snapped, massaging her temples, willing herself not to get stressed.

"Um, mine could have, I killed, you, remember?" James said.

Seph winced at the memory of the pain. "Yes," she said. "But you didn't have a choice, you were trying to save Skylar-"

"But I didn't, did I?" he said. Seph watched quietly as he got up from the couch and started pacing around the living room. "I can't seem to save anyone! And you call yourself a disgrace," he laughed hollowly. "You're nothing compared to me! I couldn't even save you!"

"James," Seph said, standing up and trying to walk toward him.

"No, Seph," he snapped. "I failed you, don't you see? You didn't deserve what I did after you came back, it was so selfish of me, but I was afraid." He closed his eyes and shook his head. "Can't believe I just admitted that. I was though, I was terrified of letting you in again. I didn't know what would happen and the fact that you didn't know me anymore. That you looked at me, but the way you did, suggested that we were complete strangers. I just couldn't do it." He took a shaky breath and shuddered a bit. "It hurt so much... trust me, Seph, you really aren't the only one to blame."

"I'm sorry that I hurt you," Seph said quietly. "I feel so awful about it. I-"

"-didn't know," James finished for her. "And you didn't, it wasn't anywhere near your fault. It was mine and I take full responsibility." He looked down at her and placed a hand on one of her cheeks, making her look him in the eye. "I am so sorry."

Seph didn't know what to do or to say. She just looked at him and raised her hand to cup the one on her cheek.

"James," she whispered.

"What?" the son of Jupiter questioned just as softly, not noticing how dangerously close they were getting.

"I think I finally remember why I l-"

The door unceremoniously flew open again. "Why is there water on the floor-"

Seph immediately took a step back from James and looked over to who had barged in.

"James?"

"Hey, mom," James said, smiling. He put his hands behind his back and turned to look at Destinee Current. "Long time, no see."

**MATT:**

He let out a small yawn as he woke up. Since it had been a weekend day, he decided to indulge himself with a nap. The Ares cabin was clean and tidy as always and for some reason, he was in a really good mood. The feeling put him in guard. He looked around the wooden establishment, along the walls and at the beds. Something was going to happen; he didn't trust his siblings.

Slowly, he got out of his bed and stood up, cracking his back and neck in the process and emitting a soft groan of pleasure at the feeling. Leaning over her picked up the lid of his chest, fished out his black hoodie, and pulled it over his head. Deeming himself warm enough to go outside, he slid on his combat boots and walked out the door. Chilly air hit him like a brick wall, and as he looked up, he saw large snow clouds looming in the distance. There was probably a fifty percent chance that the dark clouds would strike them. Normally, they would just glide over, but the gods had been so busy else where, that the weather had been getting through the barriers more and more.

Technically, he wasn't supposed to be at camp, he had a nice warm house waiting for him in Nevada. With comfortable beds, any kind of sugary soft drink that he desired, and mostly no idiot brothers and sisters to listen to. Gods above some of the stupid things that came out of their mouth made him glad that he practically grew up on the streets fighting instead of with these idiots trying to prove their worth. He didn't have to prove anything, he honestly didn't care what they thought of him. They tried to act like they didn't care what people thought, bug they had too much pride and their ego was just like Ares'.

Matt wasn't his father, he was more levelheaded and diplomatic than his siblings, traits that he'd gotten from his mother.

She'd been a soldier before he was born. She never talked about it with him, but he'd heard stories from his older sister. Matt figured (before he found out about Ares) that his dad had just been a deadbeat and that his mother had very bad luck in men. He wasn't that far off, however. Matt was under no delusions, his father was a jerk, irritating, mean, cruel, the list went on and on. But whatelse was to be expected from a god of war?

He brought himself out of his pointless train of thought and looked around. It was getting much colder, the warmth from underneath his jacket was slowly but surely being torn away. He felt something cold touch his face. Bringing his hand up, he touched his cheek, and when he brought his hand back for inspection, he saw a melting snowflake.

He hated the cold.

Grumbling to himself, he walked down the pathway to the pavilion. He knew that the Aphrodite Cabin was selling hot chocolate and he could go for a cup.

Looking down at his watch, he realized that he'd slept longer than he'd originally intended. It was three o'clock.

As he walked through the slightly icy stone pathway to the enticing cups of steaming goodness, he saw a couple of sons of Hermes, Connor and Travis Stoll talking. "...getting worse. Even Claire has been talking about coming back, I heard she IMed Skylar about it."

Matt diverted his path to the Stolls and said, "You're serious?"

"Oh," Travis said, as Connor sneezed. "Hey man. Yeah, I heard her talking to Skylar... two days ago, I think. Why?"

Matt was about to answer when Connor forcefully elbowed Travis in the side. "Shut up!" he turned to look at Matt, "We're calling Clarisse 'Claire.' It annoys the mess outta her."

The last part sounded genuine enough, but the fact that he'd elbowed his brother before saying was a bit off. "Oh," Matt said awkwardly, "uh... thanks anyway, man."

He turned away and walked over to the hot chocolate. Handing Mitchell, son of Aphrodite, a dollar bill, he grabbed a cup and walked away. Normally he would have paid in Drachmas, but the cabin was saving up for something, mortal money only. No one but the cabin members knew, Piper McLean had said that it was a good idea, looking like she was going to be sick while she was talking, and it was the only way that she could convince her cabin to get into the camp spirit.

He wished Claire was at Camp. It would make things livelier. She was in Washington state with her family. Both were only summer goers normally, but with how bad everything had gotten, the gods had been after mercenaries to do jobs. Matt's kind were getting more and more rare everyday. He had quit, but word hadn't gotten to the gods, so it wasn't like he could tell them that he wasn't interested. He had just gotten back from Texas, Triple G farms had a bad Telekhine infestation that were killing off Apollo's cows. He'd made a couple thousand.

The gods had been coming to him so much, he just relocated to Camp for the time being. He didn't have to use his supplies of Ambrosia then, also it was just easier. He'd gotten funny looks from the neighbors, having so many strange (and good looking) people coming into his house. As much as he wanted Claire back at Camp, he was glad she was in Washington, the fact that he'd reverted back to being a soldier of fortune, even if it was just for the time being, probably wouldnt sit right with her. That was a bit of an understatement. She'd be livid.

"Hey, Matt!" Avery, son of Demeter shouted. Matt looked over and saw the redheaded eight year old sprinting toward him. "Chiron wants you in the big house."

"You know what it's about, kid?" Matt questioned, reaching in his back pocket as he realized that Avery was eying his cup of hot coco.

Avery shrugged, "I think I heard Chiron talking to Hermes..."

Matt snorted. "Hermes, the messenger god? Never been hired by him before, this should be interesting," he handed the dollar to Avery, "Go and warm yourself up, kid."

Avery beamed at him and said, "Thanks!"

Matt turned around and began walking away from the pavilion. Snow was starting to fall at an increased pace, there was already a thin white layer blanketing the ground.

As the wind hit the back of his neck, he shivered, regretting cutting his hair so short. He didn't know what was going on, but he had to admit he was curious about what job Hermes would want him to do.

**Yes, I know that it is late August, but not in my story. Also, this is going to be a more mellow part of the fic, focusing on how bad things are getting, and how everyone is taking it. I'll have more on Skylar, Will, Zach, and McKenna next chapter, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about them!**

**Updates won't be as frequent, but I will try to get them up ASAP.**

**What did Seph forget? What was the gift? And what could Hermes possibly want? Review and tell me what you think!**


	13. New Challenges to Face

**JAMES:**

It was awkwardness all around. Destinee looked at them both, and said, "Is there a reason why you're home alone with a boy?"

"It's James, mom!" Seph exclaimed.

"Exactly my point," Destinee snapped. "He was your-"

She cut herself off before she could finish the sentence that would have been painful for James to hear. In the silence, James looked at the woman and noticed how different she looked from the last time he'd seen her after the world ended. She had long brown hair, it was in ringlets that cascaded down her back and over her shoulders. Her face had hardly any wrinkles on it, just maybe a crow's foot here and there. Her eyes were a vibrant blue which were narrowed in suspicion, and her taller frame made her a very imposing figure at that moment.

"I just got here, Mrs. Current," James said quietly, not wishing to get Seph into trouble. "The camp hadn't heard from her in two days and everyone was worried, so I came down to check on her."

Before her mother could respond, another person walked through. His bald head shone slightly in the dim light, and his blue eyes quickly assessed the situation around him. The man had a muscular build on him and he was easily an inch or two taller than James himself. The look Seph's stepfather gave him was one of curiosity. "Hello, James."

"Hey, Mr. Current," James said politely.

"Just call me Dennis," he replied. "Not that it's unwelcome or anything, but what are you doing here?"

"The camp was out of reach of Seph for two days," her mom replied for him. Turning to her daughter, she said, "Why weren't you able to call?"

"I was attacked by dracaenae, ten or more, and... well, I won, but I was hurt, really bad. I just woke up like an hour ago and not two minutes after, James walked through the door asking the same question."

Both of her parents stepped forward, and her dad asked, "Where are you hurt, honey? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

"I'm fine," she said, her mouth forming a half smile. "James already interrogated me."

"Do you need any help with your bags?" James asked, falling into step with his flawless manners. It also sent out a silent message, _let's get the talk over with now_.

Dennis smiled softly at him and said, "Yeah, James, I actually wouldn't mind."

"Guess I'll be right back," he murmured.

Seph graced him with a weak smile as he left the room. He followed Dennis down the hall and back down the stairs that he'd previously raced up. The bald man slowed his walk so that he was walking right beside James. "It's good to see you again, James," Dennis said after a few seconds of silence.

"Likewise, sir," James said in return. "I its been too long."

"Do you plan on staying with us?" he questioned.

James paused his stride briefly in surprise at his forwardness before regaining his composure again and continuing forward with Mr. Current. "Well," James said slowly. "I didn't really plan everything out. I heard that Seph had been out of contact for two days and I packed and left. Honestly, Chiron probably just found out that I left."

"I see," Mr. Current said slowly. "I'm afraid that doesn't answer my question, however."

"Mr. Current," James sighed. "I would love to but things with Seph and I are just so-"

"She doesn't blame you, you know that, right?" Seph's step father questioned.

James would normally would have been aggravated for being cut off, but, the what Mr. Current said made him too shocked to be very annoyed.

"Wha-what do you mean, sir?" James said, stuttering the question.

"I mean," Mr. Current said, "that she doesn't think anything that's happened in the last year and a half and before that was your fault." They made it to their blue Kia and Mr. Current popped the trunk before continuing on, "She talks to her mother sometimes and they don't think I can hear them. She misses you."

James was silent for a moment as they grabbed the last of the bags and headed back toward the apartment. "What do you want, Mr. Current?"

The man stopped and James mimicked his actions. He looked into the older man's green eyes and waited for an answer. "I want Seph to be happy," he replied after a moment. "I like you, James, and I trust you. I think it would be good if you were to stay."

James felt himself flush from the compliment, but still held the piercing stare that Seph's step father was giving off. "Fine," James said finally. "I'll stay for Seph. I want her to be happy too, more than anything. She's a lucky girl to have a dad like you," he admitted. "I never had one growing up."

"I think you did pretty well without one," Mr. Current said as they began making their way back again.

"I only brought enough supplies for a couple of nights," James admitted. "I'll have to go out and get some clothes tomorrow."

"It's on me," Mr. Current said. James gave him a look of disbelief before the man shrugged, "Money's not an object, I'm a therapist at the local psychiatric ward." He put a hand on the door handle and as he was twisting it to get back into the apartment, he said, "besides, you're doing me a favor."

James remained silent for a moment as they entered the apartment. Seph and her mother were in the kitchen, sitting at the table talking quietly. Seph was grimacing slightly as her mother laughed.

"I would ask what you two are doing," Mr. Current said, walking over and placing his hands on his wife's shoulders, "but I'm not sure I want to know."

"You don't," they both said at the same time, before they both started giggling. Seph spared James a glance and he saw her face flush slightly, probably from laughter.

"Well," Mr. Current said after their laughter died down a bit, "I've got wonderful news."

"What is it, dad?" Seph questioned, looking at the both of them with wide green eyes.

"James is gonna be staying here," he said. "Just a visit. You know since he used to live with us, I thought it would be nice to have him over for a little while."

"That sounds great," Seph said earnestly.

"I agree," Mrs. Current said, beaming at him.

"Seph," James said after casting Mrs. Current his award-winning smile, "we need to contact McKenna!"

"I have a prism in my room," she said immediately, standing from her seat.

Walking over, she grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the darkened hallway across the living room.

Her room was so... Seph. A small canopy bed in the center with sea green sheets, blankets, and pillows. The walls were littered with posters of her favorite bands and pictures of her friends, some James recognized, others he didn't. He spotted one of just her and him when they were still sixteen. Smiling at the memories, he turned back around and looked at her. "So where is it?"

"Why are you really staying?" Seph asked first, crossing her arms and making it obvious that he either answered her questions or there was no communication.

"Because your parents miss me," he said, with a smile he managed, "Can't help it that I'm that loveable."

Seph made it clear that she wasn't amused by the way she frowned at him. Some people were just so hard to please. "So you're not here to try to get me to go back to camp? Because if you are, just forget about it because I'm not going back."

James frowned at her and said, "You're still running away from your responsibilities, I see."

"Whatever," Seph said, walking over and grabbing the prism from a small and slightly cluttered night stand and walking over to her window. Drawing back the black curtain, she beckoned him over.

James walked to the window, a frown still set into place. Her hand was digging into her pocket for a drachma. The son of Jupiter was a head of her, a coin in his hand. He held it out and Seph stared at it for a moment before taking her hand out of her pocket and reaching for it slowly. When her hand got close enough, James moved his forward and grabbed her wrist, pulling her forward so that she was looking into her eyes.

"This isn't just a 'whatever,' Seph," he growled lowly, "so stop treating it that way."

She tugged at her wrist and James let it go, glaring darkly.

She looked away from him and back at the prism, angling it so that the light was separated into a rainbow. "Oh, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering, McKenna Suave, Camp Half-blood."

An image of a black haired girl came up. She was arguing heatedly with Drew, daughter of Aphrodite. "Forget it, you half witted excuse for a human! I am not wearing that to the-"

She cut herself off as she noticed them. She jumped before shoving a confused and startled Drew out of their line of sight. There was the sound of a door slamming. "Seph," McKenna sad happily. "You're okay! Why haven't you contacted us?"

James saw that there were bags under her eyes and her naturally tan complexion was paler, most likely both abnormalities were stress induced.

"Yeah," Seph said rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly, probably realizing that her sister was most likely unhappy with her. "I'm so sorry about not contacting you."

James placed a comforting hand on her back and rubbed soothing circles lightly. Leaning forward slightly, so that he was closer to McKenna's figure, he said, "It's actually not her fault. She was hurt by snake women, ten or more. She was knocked out for two days. She'd just woke up when I came over."

McKenna opened her mouth to respond when they heard a knock on a door. It was from McKenna's end. She sighed heavily and said, "That's probably Drew again, I told her to go and bug Skylar! I'll run her off in a minute." She looked at Seph with concerned green eyes, "I'm glad you're safe. Any wounds we need to worry about?"

"Nope," Seph replied, leaning back slightly against James' hand, probably a subconscious act. "Already had the interrogation twice."

McKenna raised a corner of her mouth in a half smile, for a response before turning her attention to James. "Thank you for making sure she was safe."

"No need to thank me," James said, returning the smile.

"When are you coming back?" McKenna asked right before a loud knock on the door sounded again. She turned in the doors direction and gave it a glowering look.

James waited for her to stop muttering curses at the person on the other side before speaking up. "I've been invited to stay, actually," James confided. "So I don't really know."

McKenna gave him what looked to be a knowing smile. She opened her mouth, most likely to say a teasing comment, but was cut off by another loud bang and an unintelligible shout. "Fine!" she snapped at the door. Turning back to face them, she said in a much calmer voice, "Look, with James there, I want reports three times a day, your combined scent is gonna be a bitch."

"I know," Seph said. "I promise we'll check in. I'll IM you before bed, promise."

"I've gotta go," McKenna groaned. She slashed through the image, looking as though she was about to wring someone's neck.

In the silence that followed, James didn't know what to do or what to say. He simply removed his hand and turned around, preparing to walk out. Before he could so much as take a step, Seph was there, she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest. The action was so sudden that he stiffened in shock before calming down slightly. He returned the embrace, burying his face into her hair. No words were exchanged, but none needed to be. This was Seph's way of saying _I missed you._ It was how six months ago probably should have happened. James really wished he could get the time back. He rubbed her back comfortingly as she ran her fingers through the long hair on the back of his head. He bit his lip as he wracked his brain for something to say to her, maybe to ease the tension between them, but came up with absolutely nothing.

When she pulled back, he saw a proposition written in her eyes. _Don't ask me to leave with you and I won't ask you to go._

James smiled at her as he grasped her hand. He could live with that for now. She looked up at him uncertainly. He brought his free hand up and lightly trailed it down a smooth cheek. "You need anything else?" he asked, feeling surprised by how gentle his voice was.

"No," she replied, giving him a sweet smile, making her look innocent. It was one of the qualities that he adored about her. "Come on, mom's most likely ordering pizza."

**MATT:**

Matt walked into the big house, grimacing as his face and neck started burning from the warmth of the room. He frowned at the feeling of snow melting in his hair. _You're getting soft, Andrews_, he thought, _this is nothing._

Keeping that mentality helped a lot when something annoying happened. He heard Chiron's voice coming from his office, the large wooden door was cracked open and even from the other side of the tidy entrance room, he could see the two occupants' shadows.

He crossed the room and knocked on the door, anxious to figure out what was going on. Chiron immediately said, "Come in Matthew."

Matt took a deep breath before pushing it open and taking a step in. Chiron was in his wheelchair behind his desk, while a middle aged man, with salt and pepper hair, in a jogging suit was standing by the back wall. It was clearly Hermes, Claire resembled him a lot.

"Hello, Matthew," he said quietly.

Matt bowed slightly and said, "Hello, Lord Hermes. What can I do for you?"

"Straight to the point," Hermes smiled, "exact opposite of my bunch... strange."

Matt found himself flushing slightly as he realized that he was talking about Claire. "I like her anyway, sir."

Hermes nodded, "I'm glad to hear it. But back to the reason that I'm here: my main messenger center has been raided by tyrants and it has cut the communication between Olympians in half." He looked closely at Matt and said, "Any son of Ares worth his title knows what that could mean."

Matt nodded. Lack of communication was bad. If it wasn't resolved soon, the demigods could attack with force and the gods would be taken by surprise and not unified.

"I want you to get rid of them," the god of travelers said.

"Where is your-"

"I've taken care of everything. I'll transport you there along with your partner in crime... though she doesn't know it yet. You will, however, have to find a way back on your own."

Matt was silent as he nodded.

"Ten thousand dollars for the job," Hermes said.

"Alright," Matt said. "I'll take it, sir." He bit his lip as he looked up at Hermes. He wanted to ask the god a question and it was most likely a now-or-never situation.

"Before we go, sir," Matt said, "is there any way I could talk to you?"

Hermes smiled at him, it was a gentle and sly smile, one that Claire gave him when she thought she'd figured him out. "I already know what you're gonna ask, son." Matt felt a cold fist squeeze around his heart. "And my answer is: if you both get back alive and well, you have my blessing."

Matt smiled at him and bowed his head, "Thank you, sir."

Hermes laughed, "I'd wait until you're finished before you start thanking me. The place is a maze."

Before Matt could respond, Hermes gave one loud snap of his fingers, and Matt was gone. The office was gone from his eyesight and wind was whipping at him all over.

When his eyesight cleared, he wasn't in camp anymore. Heck, he was pretty sure that New York was out of the question too. As he looked around, he saw that he was standing in front of a small diner, the smell of hamburgers wafting from it was thick in the air. People were walking around him, groups of girls talking excitedly. He saw, with a fair amour of humor, that a few of them casted him appreciative glances.

Snow wasn't falling, but the yards were covered in it, along with the roofs of the brick homes. All of them were small and one stories, the yards, for as far as he could see, were all neatly cut and cleaned.

It was one of those neighborhoods where everyone was in everyone's business. He could tell. And one other way he could tell was the way the passersby were looking at him like he was a stranger. He honestly thought that places like this only existed in movies.

A cold wind cut through the town and Matt felt himself shivering even though his hoody. "Uh, excuse me," he heard footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw a pretty girl with long blonde hair and blue eyes, she was already tall, and the heeled boots that she had on made her even taller. "Are you lost? I've never seen you around here and I just thought maybe you needed some directions."

The way she looked at him told the son of Ares everything he needed to know. "Oh," Matt said, smiling. "I'm just waiting for my _girlfriend_," he was sure to put extra emphasis on the word, the brightened features of the girl fell fractionally. "We're supposed to go into the post office together and grab something."

"Oh," she said, sounding crestfallen, "alright."

Matt had to refrain from rolling his eyes as he watched her go back to her small group of friends and shake her head. They all casted him curious glances and walked off. For the love of the gods, she looked sixteen! He was twenty two. What was wrong with the world? He wanted to facepalm.

Moments later, he heard the crunch of snow under someone else's feet, and he was wondering what to expect. As he turned around, he heard, "I'm glad to know I can trust you on your own."

Matt felt a smile come to his face at the sound of the voice. He turned and saw that she was right behind him, she was only in a long sleeved shirt and it didn't look very warm. Matt's reaction was immediate as he watched her rub her hands along her arms. He pulled his hoody off and before she had time to get one protest out of her mouth, he'd already slid it over her head. Grumbling slightly, she put her arms though the sleeves and crossed them looking up at him. "Now you're gonna get cold!"

He was past that now, it was down to the bone so far and he was forcing himself not to shiver so she'd keep herself warm. "I'm fine, Claire."

She leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly. "It's good to see you," she muttered.

"I missed you," he said quietly, "four and a half months is too long."

"Agreed," Claire said. She pulled away from him, cupped his face in her hands and pulled him forward, kissing him softly, he responded by pulling her closer and wrapping his arm around her, holding her close. She pulled away slowly, and he opened his eyes to see her looking up at him, affection deep in her eyes. She slowly moved her hands downward, her fingertips grazing his thick scar all the way down until her hands were resting on his chest. "So," she said casually. "Why are we here?"

"Well," he said laughingly, "other than us causing a scene," Claire lifted her head off his chest and looked around, seeing what he saw, but ignored. People casting them strange glances as the passed by.

"Yeah," she said turning back around, her face tinted red. "Other than that."

"Hermes needs a favor," Matt said calmly. "Tyrants have taken over his main messenge center. He didn't say much else, but I imagine that it's a postal office around here somewhere."

"Only one way to find out," Claire said brightly. She grabbed his hand, intertwining their fingers, and started tugging him in the direction of the small diner in front of him, the smell of hamburgers cooking got even stronger as they made their way to the door.

As they walked in, Matt saw that the place was fairly busy, waitresses were everywhere, serving people their soft drinks and plates of hamburgers, fries, steaks, and other foods. Most of the waitresses seemed to be the same. Long blonde hair pulled back, red lipstick, and a smile on their face backed by perfectly white teeth.

It was warm inside, Matt was grateful for that, his arms felt like oversizes icicles. The chatter mixed with the sound of food cooking made it feel more crowded that it actually was and it made him feel claustrophobic. Claire didn't seem bothered in the least, she pulled him toward the counter and they both sat down on the stools.

A girl with blonde hair and grey eyes walked up to them, she smiled and brought out a pad. "What can I get for you two?" her accent was a thick southern one.

"I'll take a hot cocoa," Claire said, smiling at the girl.

Both looked at Matt. "Same please," he replied.

She smiled and yelled at the back, "To hot chocolates, Jimmy!"

She waited for a moment before a deeper voice called back. "It'll be a few minutes!"

She looked at them with an apologetic smile. "It should be up in five minutes or so."

"That'll be fine," Claire said easily, leaning forward and resting her chin in her hand.

"I don't think I've seen you guys around here. You guys new or something?" she questioned, pulling a rag out from behind the counter and wiping the already clean surface with it.

"You could say that," Matt said. "We're here visiting my uncle "

"Ah, okay," she said cheerily. "So, how are you liking it so far? Mercury normally isn't a tourist point."

Matt blinked, "Wh-what?"

"Mercury," she said again. "It isn't really a place where strangers come in often. Especially none like yourselves."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Claire asked sharply, her hand sliding down slightly, toward her waist where Matt was willing to bet her dagger was.

"Northerners," she said shrugging, but there was a look in her eyes that told Matt everything he needed to know. She didn't mean northerners. He glanced over at Claire and saw that she didn't buy it either, she was a daughter of Hermes after all.

Playing it off as if he actually believed her, he said, laughingly, "Yeah, I'm actually not that far up north. Navada."

"Washington state," Claire said shrugging, "guess I'm farther up."

The girl sighed and looked down at her watch. "Lorie!" Jimmie's sounded from the back. "We need some help!"

Lorie gave them a small smile before sighing. "Better go and see what they want." She turned around and walked to a white door and pushed it open, disappearing to the back.

"This is bad," Matt stated.

"How so?" Claire questioned, her eyes constantly roaming the restaurant.

"I don't know quite yet," he said, "but something's up. I mean come on, Claire, look at the the town's name for crying out loud. Mercury?"

"I don't think the message center is a post office," Claire stated.

"Then what do you think?" Matt asked, looking at her wearily.

"I think the message center is the whole town," she said immediately.

"What makes you say that?" he demanded.

Before Claire could answer, Lorie was back with their beverages. "I'll explain later," she said before the blonde was within easy hearing range. "We might be here longer than we thought."

**WILL:**

He was looking at Kayla strangely as he stood in the doorway of the infirmary. She was talking to Mark angrily, calling him some not so nice names, and all the son of Ares did was smile at her.

"I mean, really, Mark! I know he insulted me, but breaking both of his arms went a bit far," she said. "And wipe that smile off your face!"

The son of Ares didn't, he let it grow slightly before rolling his eyes. "Come on, Kayla, the guy was being a di-"

"Mark Anthony Edwards!" Kayla shouted, cutting him off. "Don't you dare finish that sentence!"

Will snickered as he continued watching the show unfold.

"Fine, Kayla," Mark muttered. "No need to say my whole name."

Will's sister just glared at him.

"Gods," he groaned. "If I promise that I won't break both arms again, will you stop looking at me like that?"

Kayla brought her hands up to her face and brought them down across it. "Fine, Mark."

Mark grinned at her, leaning down he kissed her briefly before walking away, past Will, muttering, "She's still angry," before exiting out the door.

Will fought the urge to roll his eyes. Of course she was still angry! He walked further in and looked at Lenny Scott. "You are," Will muttered as he was getting a cup of nectar out to feed him, "the single most stupid person I've ever met."

"Shut up, medication boy," Lenny growled, "and give me the nectar!"

Will smiled coldly at him and said, "I don't know if I'd be in such a hurry to feel better. All Mark promised was no two broken arms. Don't forget legs, ribs, one arm, your neck is probably up for grabs also."

Lenny glared at him angrily. "I can take care of my-"

"Don't forget Matt hates your guts also," Will said shrugging, "not to mention McKenna, Zach, Seph, James..." Will looked at him and shrugged. "You're gonna die by the time you hit twenty one the way you're headed."

Will poured the nectar down his throat before Lenny could respond and walked away as he was spluttering. Probably not the best doctoring technique, but he figured that it beat strangulation by a mile.

Walking up to Kayla, he smiled winningly at her and she gave him a weak half smile back. "I heard Skylar was looking for you," she confided. "Said something about needing to talk to you about someone's mentality disorder. Thought I heard her say Piper's."

"I think we all think that," Will said with a bit of a laugh. However, his eyebrows scrunched together for a moment as he thought. "She knows that I work from five to nine on Saturdays. It's always been that way."

"I think she's just distracted. I heard that between her and McKenna, Drew's gonna have a decapitation ceremony planned with her being the guest if honor after everything's over. She's been harassing them day and night." Kayla rolled her eyes before she said the next sentence, "Apparently she's trying to redeem herself after the way she ran the Aphrodite cabin like a dictator." Kayla turned her back to him, her long blonde hair following her seconds later, glimmering slightly in the light. "I feel kinda bad for them, she's treating the girls like pet projects. Both girls are trying to be nice, but let's face it, there's only so much you can take from a bitch like that."

He heard clinking sounds as Kayla started pulling more bottles of nectar out of the drawers underneath their medicine cabinet and setting them out for easy access.

"Yeah," Will said, finally speaking. He walked over and pulled out the packages of ambrosia and began stacking them up for the world to see. "I know what you mean," he stood on his tip toes to place some of the godly food at the top of the large holding area, "but as long as she doesn't start doing that to me and she doesn't overstep her boundaries with Skylar, I don't see what harm can come from her trying to right her serious wrong."

"We're almost done stocking up," Kayla replied, "I think I can take care of the rest. Why don't you find your girlfriend and find out?"

Will released a long and drawn out sigh before looking down at a golden watch. "I still have thirty minutes until nine."

"Consider it a favor," Kayla shrugged, setting another jar of the godly drink inside the cabinet.

"Thanks, sis," Will said, pressing a kiss to her cheek, "I owe you one!"

"When don't you?" Kayla asked playfully. "Now go and talk to Skylar."

Will didn't need to be told again, he ran out of the doorway and into the camp, where the sun was slowly setting. Not sure where to check, he settled for going to the Hermes cabin. Sprinting forward, he passed numerous campers that were looking at him like he had a mental disorder. Will ignored them and a minute or so later, he stopped in front of the Hermes cabin. He stepped up onto the porch and knocked on the door.

A few minutes later, the very person that he was looking for answered. Her eyes opened widely in surprise and she smiled at him. "Will!" she exclaimed. "What're you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in the infirmary working?"

"Kayla's covering for me," he replied. "She told me something's got you down, I figured that maybe I could help you out."

Skylar gave him a weak smile and pushed a strand of blonde hair behind her ear. "It's nothing."

Will stepped inside and she walked over to her bunk. A couple of others were inside, but they were too busy whispering amongst themselves to pay Skylar or Will a bit of attention. "You're upset," Will remarked calmly, "that's never nothing. Now what is it?"

Skylar sighed tiredly. "It's just... with everything that's going on... what the Aphrodite cabin is doing just seems so pointless. And then Drew harassing me on such stupid subjects... like clothes... makes me realize all over again that we're putting all of this effort into this pointless celebration when we don't have anything to celebrate. It's all so stupid!"

Will placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, sighing lightly. He placed a kiss on her hair and said quietly, "We actually have a lot to celebrate."

"Like what?" Skylar demanded. "What's so good?"

"For starters," Will said softly, "we're alive."

"Yeah," Skylar sighed. "I don't envy the shades at the moment."

Will winced at the thought. The Underworld had been taken over and he knew more people down there than he would have preferred. "Me either." He sighed and decided to go for a slightly happier subject. "Do you know what today is?" he questioned.

Skylar shook her head. "I've been having a long month," she sighed. "I'm lucky if I remember the right day of the week."

"Well," Will said. "I guess I'll forgive you this time because you have been so busy, but next year you won't be so lucky."

Digging into his jacket pocket, he pulled out a wrapped gift and sat it into her lap. She gasped slightly, as if she'd come to a conclusion, but he whispered it into her ear anyway. "Three years today."

**I figured that would be a sweet place to leave it! I hope you liked the chapter. I'm so sorry for the people who reviewed and I forgot to send a preview to. I'm just so busy and scatterbrained at the moment. So until I have enough time to actually remember to send them out, I'ma have to cancel them. I'm so sorry.**

**Please don't let this deter you from reviewing, hearing what you guys have to say keeps me going. So please review!**


	14. Saturdays and Sundays Suck Part I

**CLAIRE:**

Lorie smiled at them as she set the two cups of hot cocoa on the counter in front of them. "They needed some help with the machine, I swear I'm the only mechanic around here," she laughed lightly, "I thought guys prided themselves on being able to fix things." She smiled and winked at Claire, who laughed in return.

"Most do," Matt shrugged.

"Alright, Lorie," Claire said leaning forward and sipping on her drink. "What's going on around here?"

Lorie looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Claire sighed and looked at her closely, ignoring the way Matt was eyeing her nervously. "You seem nice," Claire commented. "You're obviously intelligent, blonde hair, grey eyes, can fix machines within minutes..."

The girl was looking at her with a half smile, "You seem nice too. Mischievous glint in your blue eyes, slightly pointed looks, very observant, careful movements. Your boyfriend's thick brown hair, deep brown eyes, rather large muscles..."

Claire stuck her hand out, "Its nice to see a daughter of Athena around here."

"Same with a daughter of Hermes and a son of Ares," she said in return. "But what does bring you here?"

"Like I said," Claire said, "what's going on?"

Lorie sighed and rested her face in her hands, "Nothing you can help with." When she looked back up at them, her grey eyes seemed even darker worry clear on her face. "Get out while you still can."

"We can't," Matt replied before Claire could. His tone made it clear that he was in business mode, reminding her eerily of the boy she'd met when she was sixteen. She didn't like it. "We're here to help."

Lorie's eyes traveled to Matt, they turned as cold and calculating as his tones was. "Two people can't do anything," she said finally. "I'm one of the only ones left here that's actually on your side!" She took a nervous look around at the other waitresses. "Everyone else here... they're Tyrants, looking for people like you."

"First off," Matt said defiantly. "Two people can do a hell of a lot. And why would anyone come here?"

"Demigods are always drawn to places where gods have power over," she replied after a moment. Sighing heavily, she brought out a pad and paper and started scribbling on it furiously. "I can't keep talking to you," she muttered. "It'll start looking suspicious."

She ripped the pad off and set it down, "Go here as soon as you leave."

Without saying another word, she marched off.

Matt slid off his stool and muttered, "Stay here, I'll go and pay for the drinks."

"You sure?" Claire questioned, digging into her back pocket, "I've got money on-"

"Yes, Claire," Matt rolled his eyes. "I've got it covered."

He walked away and up to the counter, pulling out a few ones to pay with. A few seconds later, he said something to the woman taking his money and she smiled. That was her Matt, such a gentleman.

He gave her a half smile before walking back toward Claire. "Who knew you were such a charmer," Claire said smiling slightly.

"You did, apparently," he said stealing a small kiss. "Come on," he sighed, "we need to go and look at the address."

The grabbed the thermal cups that held their cocoa and walked out, ready to face the cold.

As soon as they walked off the property of the restaurant and onto the ice free roads, Matt pulled the sheet of paper from his back pocket and they both looked at it. '1500 Minerva Avenue.'

Claire looked around at the signs as Matt asked, "Where in the name of Zeus would Minerva Avenue be?"

"That way," she said pointing to her right. "Its on the other side of Jupiter avenue, which is past the intersection here," she indicated the traffic light that was maybe three roads down. "Right across from Mars Street."

Matt just stared at her for a moment and Claire felt her face beginning to heat up. "What?"

"How in the name of Ares do you know that?" he demanded.

Claire shrugged. "My brain is like a built in GPS. It's what I get for being a daughter of Hermes. Skylar got speed and I got tracking."

Matt sighed and shook his head, "At least with you around, I'll never have to get a GPS."

"No one likes your humor," Claire grumbled. "So shut up."

He smiled faintly and said, "Well come on, let's go."

The walk was uneventful, the only thing that happened to Claire was sipping her hot chocolate and snuggling inside of Matt's wonderfully soft hoody. Gods it smelled just like him. She'd never admit it, but she was a bit smug walking around with him in what was his hoody, all of the other girls casted her dirty looks because of it. She casted one back, saying 'that's right, he's mine, get over it!'

Every time she glanced at him, he seemed to get a bit more rigid, she knew he was cold, but every time she would offer his hoody back to him, he'd roll his eyes at her and say, "No, little girl, I'm fine."

Thankfully, Claire didn't have to feel too guilty for too long. They were standing at the door of a small two story brick home with a grey door with the numbers 1500 shining dully from the light that the cloudy day was givinf off. The windows were shut, but it didn't give off a bad vibe, it felt almost homey and Claire hadn't even stepped inside.

She and Matt both walked up the steps of the large porch and Matt knocked on the door. They stood there for a good minute and nothing happened. Claire thought no one was coming, when she heard soft footsteps. coming closer and closer. A second later the door knob turned and the door opened to reveal a boy with sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Claire stared at him dumbly, blinking.

"No way," she muttered.

**MATT:**

"Do you realize what time it is?" the person questioned looking up at the sky. His hair started moving wildly as the wind picked up, almost managing to make him shiver. Gods he loved his willpower.

"Trust me," Matt spoke up, "it wasn't my idea to come here. Lorie sent us."

The man blinked before his blue eyes lit up in understanding. "Alright," he said, "come inside."

Matt placed his hand on the small of Claire's back and pushed her forward gently. She entered the house and then he did right after, wanting to hiss as his face, torso, arms, and hands began burning. As uncomfortable as it was, the warm home made him feel so much better.

"Alright," the man said, "who are you."

"Luke," Claire said, pulling Matt's hoody off and handing it to him, "its me."

The guy that Matt was guessing was Luke blinked and said, "Claire?"

His girlfriend smiled and nodded before running over and giving him a large hug. Matt stood back, feeling awkward and slightly out of the loop. A small pit of what was undeniable jealousy sat in the bottom of his stomach boiling slightly.

When Claire released him, she backed away and gripped Matt's hand tightly, almost as if she could feel his displeasure. "Luke, this is Matt Andrews, son of Ares..." she looked at Matt her eyes glowing in happiness. "Matt, this is Luke Castellan, son of Hermes."

Matt blinked and looked at the older man. He definitely knew that name, and he knew exactly who this was now. But there was one slight problem. "No offence... but why are you alive?"

His chest stung slightly from where Claire slapped him, but Luke said, "No, its a good question. Why don't we go into the living room and I'll answer your questions while we're all comfortable."

"Sounds good to me," Matt said easily, walking further into the house with a happy Claire by his side.

The living room was nice and cozy with cream colored carpets, brick walls, two green plush armchairs and a large black sofa that already had two occupants, one of which he vaguely recognized. The girl had long black hair and bright blue eyes, she was very jittery, which made her seem very troubled, and her beautiful face was contorted into a frown as she watched them walk in... he knew her name started with an S, but that was about as far as he got with recognition. The other person was a large guy with muscles bigger than his own. His skin was a dark brown and his face wasn't exactly attractive, but he gave off a friendly air. He was sure he'd never seen the guy before, but as he saw the look on Claire's face, he was sure that they were okay.

"Silena..." Claire whispered. He was right about the girl! "Beckendorf?"

Both smiled gravely at her, and as they looked at Matt, Selena's smile grew into an actual friendly smile while Beckendorf's went to a distrustful and weary frown.

"Claire," Silena said, "you've gotten so big! You're what? Eighteen now?"

Matt had to fight back a smile as he observed the cute blush that flamed across her cheeks. "Nineteen, actually," she said quietly.

Luke gestured for them to take the two chairs while he sat on the far side of the couch, closest to the fire. "Okay," the son of Hermes said. "We all know Claire, but Matt, this is Selena, daughter of Aphrodite, and this is Beckendorf, son of Hephaestus. Guys, this is Matt Andrews, son of Ares."

Silena's eyes flickered between him and Claire before she smiled widely again. "So _this_ is Matt, Claire?"

"We can talk about all of that later," Luke said, his voice carrying a slightly impatient edge to is. He looked at both Claire and Matt, "Can either of you tell me what's happening?"

"Nothing good," Claire replied gravely, her voice was hinting fear and making him feel slightly protective, but he swallowed the feeling, settling for shifting slightly so he could look at her better. "The world has gone though hell and back since you died. I imagine you've heard about the war with Gaea, and the one going on now."

All three people nodded in confirmation.

"Well Gaea's army marched into the Underworld a few months ago and took it over, banishing Hades from his throne. All of the other gods have been next to useless from what I've been able to tell, all of them fighting off monsters and other beings. So basically, we've been on our own fighting their battles and our own."

"What do you mean by that?" Beckendorf rumbled in a shockingly deep voice.

"Well," Matt said, "the statement goes mostly for me and my kind... though I imagine more quests have been getting issued as well."

"Your kind?" Silena questioned in a confused voice. "What do you mean by that?"

"I was a mercenary," Matt said, noticing how their eyes all flashed with recognition at the reason, but it eventually went from that to distrust. He just sighed and leaned back farther into the chair, used to the reaction. "The gods have been working us like dogs lately, getting us to clear out their sacred places and rid the world of annoying monsters."

"So who sent you here?" Luke questioned.

"Your father did," Matt said, shrugging. He noticed the way Luke flinched slightly as he said 'your father'.

"He said the place was in bad shape," Claire said, her voice held a persuasive edge, as if pleading with them to open up.

"It is," Silena agreed solemnly. "It has a lot to do with us... or so we believe."

"What do you mean?" Claire questioned, leaning forward a bit.

"... not just us," Beckendorf said, "but what happened. Death has been turned back. And its because of Hades being in the pit and who, at the moment, is in charge of the damned. Silena and I were being taken from the Elysian fields, and Luke from the Isles of the Blessed, when we were pulled from the Underworld and sent here. We weren't the only ones. A lot of the shades are coming back, but as people, live people."

"This is where it gets bad," Luke said, leaning forward slightly, "not just the good guys are coming back. There are actually more people from the punishment fields out than anyone else. And almost all of them hate the gods. Most of them are here."

Matt felt himself grow cold inside at the news. He would have preferred leaving Claire out of something so dangerous, maybe brought Oliver...anyone but her.

"I know what you're thinking," Claire said, bringing the conflicted son of Ares out of his train of thought. "And I'm not leaving. We've got a job to do."

Matt looked at Claire, giving her a _We're gonna talk about this later! _glare.

"You guys are just so sweet!" Silena gushed. "Do you see them Charlie?"

Beckendorf shot him an apologetic look before sighing, "Yes, dear. I see them." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her to the back of the couch.

"Well," Luke sighed, "its going on eleven o'clock... we only have one bedroom to spare..."

Matt was about to volunteer the couch when Claire cut him off, "That's fine, Luke. I'm tired anyway, so lead on."

Luke led them up the staircase and to a room on the back wall. Opening it, he said, "Hope you guys have a good night. We'll talk more in the morning."

He and Claire nodded at him and he walked away. She walked inside before him and he saw the king sized bed that dominated the majority of the bedroom. It was pushed into the corner and a small night table was beside it. A door was opened showing off a dark room that Matt was pretty sure was a bathroom. A small dresser was sitting on the wall beside them, a lightswitch right above it. Claire flicked it up, a light flickered to life and a ceiling fan began spinning.

**CLAIRE:**

She took another step inside and sighed, as if seeing a bed had reminded her body of how truly tired she was. With the mission out of her mind, she was able to concentrate on the fact that she'd had very little sleep in the past week. Nightmares had been awful. She was so caught up in her thoughts that when Matt placed a hand on her shoulder, she jumped.

"What's wrong?" he asked, he was behind her, but she didn't need to see his face to know that he was frowning.

She didn't say anything; she just grabbed his hand from off her shoulder and intertwined her fingers with his. He pulled her back toward him and she let out a small sound of contentment as she hit his large frame softly.

"Claire," he said again. "What's wrong?"

"I'm just tired," she shrugged. "No biggie."

"Nightmares?" he murmured, setting his chin on her shoulder.

She didn't bother fighting the urge to roll her eyes. It was as if he could read her mind!

"How did you know?" she demanded. "I know you find me transparent but gods!"

"You're cute when you're exasperated," he muttered.

"You must find me utterly adorable all the time then," she muttered, drawing a soft laugh from him, calming her down immediately. She loved his laugh.

"And I've been having them too," he said, finally answering her question. "It's the upcoming war... it's getting pretty nasty out there."

Claire nodded and let out a sigh. "I know." Turning around she looked at him. "How about you?" she questioned, looking straight into his deep brown eyes, "Are you tired?"

"No," he said. "You need some sleep." He walked over to the bed and grabbed a pillow. "I'll take the floor."

"Matthew Andrews!" Claire scolded, her hands on her hips in fists.

Matt stiffened, and slowly turned around, dropping the plush material back on the bed. He raised his hands and said, "What did I do?"

"You're not sleeping on the floor!" she snapped.

"Well you sure aren't!" he retorted. "Now go to bed!" In a lower voice, he said, "We are not arguing about sleeping arrangements!"

Claire looked at the bed, feeling guilty. Matt tossed the pillow on the floor and gestured to the bed. "Up you go," he commanded, his voice held no room for arguments, it rarely did when he thought he was doing it for her own good.

Sighing, she slowly walked toward the bed and sat down on the edge. Her eyes were already trying to force themselves shut, but she forced herself to keep them open. Matt was on his knees as he pulled out a blanket that he'd found folded in a drawer of the dresser. "Convenient," he muttered.

Looking back over at her, he crawled over and stopped when he was just in front of her. He sat a bit higher so that they were almost eye to eye. Leaning over, he gave her a chaste kiss and muttered, "Pleasant dreams."

Claire felt the air puff out of her nose in a snort. "Not likely."

Grabbing the other pillow, she pulled it over until it was under her head and pulled the blankets over her tired and slightly achy body. "G'night, Matt," she muttered, before sighing a sentence that she wouldn't even remember in the morning. One that Matt definitely would, one that he would think about for the entire night instead of sleeping, unlike Claire, who was out like a light five seconds after her head hit the pillow.

**~THEFINALBATTLE~**

The next morning came around, and Claire felt refreshed. Surprisingly so. She hadn't had any dreams. And she definitely wasn't complaining.

Light shined dimly through the thin green material of the curtains, which was the same shade as the bed's comforter, sheets, and pillow cases.

She sat up slowly and stretched, relishing the feeling of complete rest. She heard the sound of slow breathing from below her and looking down on the ground, she saw Matt sprawled out on the floor face down. His hair was a mess and the blanket that he was using was nowhere near him, she saw it beside the dresser again. She saw him shiver slightly and sighed. Getting off her comfortable mattress, she placed her feet on the cold carpet at winced.

Leaning down, she shook Matt gently. "Matt," she whispered.

Immediately, she felt a hand wrap around her wrist and she was pulled to the ground with a startled yelp, her head hitting with a dizzying thump. The breath was knocked out of her on impact and she felt a hand around her throat, blocking any air from getting into her. She looked into Matt's eyes, which were cold and unforgiving. He blinked and immediately let go of her neck. "Claire?" he questioned, his voice hoarse from sleeping. "Are you alright."

She managed a nod as she focused on getting her breath and heartbeat under control. She got to her feet, but Matt stayed on the floor, he still had bags under his eyes. Claire held out her hand to him, which he looked at for a moment. He grabbed it after a moment's hesitation and Claire pulled him to his feet. He was obviously still drowsy. She could tell by the way he yawned and swayed slightly. She wrapped an arm around his back and placed her other hand on his hip. Pushing slightly so that he got the message and walked forward. When they made it to the bed, she gestured for him to lay down.

He frowned at her, blinking slightly. "Wha abou you?" he asked, his speech slurring slightly.

"I'll be fine," she replied gently. "You need some sleep."

"But-"

"I'll lay on the other side of the bed," she said, cutting him off, "just please lay down before you fall."

He nodded slowly and sat on the bed, laying his head on the pillow and passing out again seconds later. She rolled her eyes at how quickly he was gone despite the fact that he 'wasn't even tired.' She pulled the blanket out from under his feet and pulled it over his cold body. Leaning down, she placed a small kiss on his lips before walking around and doing as she promised.

**MCKENNA:**

She looked at the inside of her empty cabin tiredly. She felt so lonely, Percy was gone for the year and Seph hadn't been there for six months. She was. contemplating going back to sleep, hoping to feel better, but decided against it as she looked at her alarm clock. It was seven... the same time that Seph would be ready to wake her and Percy up. Not anymore.

Rolling out of bed, she sifted through her trunk and found a pair of blue jeans and a grey sweater. Sliding the clothes on, she grabbed a brush and ran it through her hair.

After deeming herself presentable, she opened her door and slowly walked out of it, hoping Zach would be around soon to make her forget the plunging loneliness that she was drowning in.

Her rescuer didn't come in the shape of a tall brooding son of Hades, more or less in a shorter than her cheerful daughter of Hermes. She casted McKenna her brightest smile and said, "Hey, McKenna! You'll never guess what Will got for me last night."

McKenna blinked in confusion, but the date stood out in her head. _December eighteenth... the day before had been their anniversary_. "Its been three years, hasn't it?" McKenna questioned.

"Yeah," Skylar sighed. "If you don't count that hellish year with the Tyrants in charge."

"No one ever does," McKenna muttered. "Just look at Seph and James."

At the sound of the two people that she and Skylar were missing dearly, both girls went silent. After a moment McKenna broke it, saying, "So what did you get?"

"He gave me a new lock picking set," she said excitedly. "How wonderful is he?"

"That's great," McKenna said earnestly. Both began walking toward the pavilion as Skylar dug around in her pocket.

"I have them here," she said, sliding her hand out and pulling a keyring filled with different sized black metal bars, some seemed to be crooked while others were straight. McKenna wouldn't be able to use them, but Skylar was most likely pretty handy with them.

"They're beautiful," the daughter of Poseidon said truthfully.

"And most likely not cheap," Skylar sighed. "I was too caught up in Drew's harassment and everything else that's been going on to remember." She put her hands in her face and let out a shaky sigh. "I am the worst girlfriend ever."

"It'll be okay," McKenna said, patting her on the back. They made it to the pavilion and were standing in the line, McKenna smelled the fresh bacon being put out, as healthy as possible, but no bacon was one hundred percent. She looked away from the inviting food and back at her friend. "You'll make it up to him," McKenna said confidently. "Christmas is a week from today," she elbowed Skylar in the side playfully as the line moved forward and she was able to grab a tray. "I imagine you can come up with something by then.

Skylar pulled a loose strand of curly hair behind her ear before reaching out and grabbing a tray of her own. "I guess so," she relented. "But what?"

"What do you think Will would like?" McKenna questioned.

"I don't know," Skylar sighed. "But I'm thinking about it, trust me."

McKenna nodded and gave her a hopefully reassuring smile. "Well, I guess you can tell me your findings after breakfast."

Skylar nodded and walked off to her table, which was crowded. McKenna sighed and walked to her own, which reminded her of how undercrowded hers was. Sitting down alone, she quietly dug into her food.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

McKenna and Zach, who'd woken up late and stumbled to the back of the food line when there were only two people left, were sitting on a comfy cushion along with Will and Skylar. They made sure that every Sunday was movie day and, thanks to Skylar's sticky fingers, they had plenty of new movies to watch. Each time the boys would both pick you horror/action movies while she and Skylar normally went for comedies. They were watching Zach's pick, which was Resident Evil: Apocalypse. A zombie dog had just jumped at two of the main characters, one being a little girl, causing McKenna to jump slightly. She didn't have to look over to know that he was grinning at her.

"Shut up," she muttered.

That caused him to snort quietly before shaking with silent laughter. Leaning over, still laughing slightly, he whispered, "Scared, Suave?"

"No," she snapped. "Just startled."

"Same thing," Zach sang teasingly.

"Shut up," she muttered again.

Zach smirked and he opened his mouth to do quite the opposite but something shimmered right in front of them. The sound of the movie turned off, and McKenna saw why. Seph and James were right in front of them.

"Hey guys," James greeted. "Movies?"

McKenna nodded in confirmation along with the others. "What about you?" she questioned.

"Went shopping," James reported. "Met a hound while we were resting in central park." He held up his right hand which was wrapped thickly in gauze that was tinged red.

"What happened?" Skylar questioned, McKenna could see her shifting anxiously.

"Mad horde of old women going crazy from a sale," James said dryly.

"I'm being serious," Skylar snapped.

"So am I," he defended.

"You're being an idiot," Seph snapped at him glaring slightly. Turning to us, she said, "He was playing hero and got scratched."

"What do you mean?" McKenna inquired.

"It jumped at Seph," James said. "I pushed her out of the way."

"I can take care of myself," Seph snapped.

"For the love of the gods," James groaned. "I tried to help you! Can't you just take it silently? Being a bit grateful would be nice too!"

McKenna watched them with as much interest as she'd had watching Resident Evil.

"I would be more grateful if you weren't such an idiot," she said, aggravation laced her tone. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

James looked at all of them as if saying, '_Do you see what I'm voluntarily putting up with?_' Sighing he shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, Current." Looking back at them, he said, "I'll get this fixed up before it starts bleeding too bad."

"That's probably a good idea," Will said.

James sighed and brought his hand up, "See you guys later." He ran it through the mist and the image of them dissolved within seconds.

"Never thought I would miss the sound of that," Will muttered.

"Me either," McKenna agreed.

"But we all do," Zach said with a shrug. "Maybe he'll convince her to come back."

McKenna remained silent. She didn't think so, but didn't voice her thought because she hoped to the gods that she was wrong. She watched Will click play on the remote and the movie continued. McKenna leaned against Zach and allowed herself to forget about everything that was going wrong and watch. She smiled as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her against his side. She liked being there despite the fact that she could hear his soft chuckle every time she jumped.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

The end of the day always consisted of news from Chiron. And like everyday, the bad out weighed the good. She sat beside Jason Grace, the blonde haired son of Jupiter, as they huddled around the campfire, which was a small and depressing shade of orange that night. There was nothing to be happy about really.

"Hello, Campers!" Chiron called. "We have more news on the Tyrant' progress. From our very own Matt Andrews and Claire Wilson."

McKenna was wondering about that. Normally they joined them in the Poseidon cabin along with James and occasionally Oliver, who was in Nevada if she wasn't mistaken. She figured something was up.

"Lord Hades has managed to stop death," he said.

"That's not quite how it worked out," a voice from the crowd said. It was Nico. "It's more in our favor than you think. He reversed death so to speak. Shades are being brought back, a lot of them are bad, but a lot are good. They're not dead anymore, but unlike the second giant war, we can still die and so can they."

"I couldn't have said it better myself," Chiron said, smiling at the normally quiet boy. "Matt and Claire are working on rounding some up as we speak. They've already found four. The lead monster in charge of recruiting is one that Nico knows very well," Chiron said. "The manticore."

**Hey! I hope you like the chapter! Matt and Claire are going to have fun! Also I'm surprised that no one speculated on what Matt wanted from Hermes, I figured you guys would be all over that. Soooo... leave a review before ya leave? And next chapter is part II and will probably be all Matt and Claire. I'm already working on it so give me a review and I'll try to update ASAP.**

**Also, does anyone know a good NON-MARYSUE fic? I'm honestly too lazy and too easily aggravated to look for any OC fics worth reading. I mean legitly, if I have to read: "She has scars all over her body but it doesn't affect her beauty." And the whole "I magically know how to fight like a boss... a beautiful one!" I'ma rip hair out of my head. I mean wtf is wrong with these people?! I'm somewhere between facepalming in disgust and laughing!**

**Sorry for the rant, but you guys KNOW its true! Soooo... any good fics out there?**


	15. Saturdays and Sundays Suck Part II

**MATT:**

He looked over at Claire as they sat on the sofa in the living room. He really didn't want her there; it was dangerous, too dangerous. The manticore was a pain. He had poisonous missiles and moved fast. Matt didn't really feel like playing Dodge the Dart alone, but he felt like doing it with Claire even less.

Everyone was gone out of the house except for them, Lorie and Silena both had jobs at the small restaurant that he and Claire had visited the previous day, and Beckendorf worked at the local mechanic shop. Luke, on the other hand, was at the town hall, where the manticore was at. "Job" interviews were being held there for every brought-back-to-life demigod, and Luke was scoping the place out.

He and Claire were stuck hiding because no one in the town liked strangers. A silence hung in the air between them, and Matt was probably the only one to feel the uncertainty of it. Normally he could ignore just about anything that anyone said, but Claire wasn't one of those people. He was pretty sure what she'd said had been her exhaustion talking. Matt tried to mentally shrug it off, promising himself that he'd know for sure in a couple of days, but just that thought made him infinitely more anxious.

He looked over at Claire and smiled. She smiled back, but she seemed to be scrutinizing him, which made him slightly nervous, she was a really observant person.

Their unofficial stare down was abruptly interrupted by the door slamming open and Silena and Lori dashing in. "Guys," the daughter of Aphrodite said frantically. "Up, now! Luke's in trouble."

Matt was immediately on his feet, used to split second decisions. "What happened?"

"They saw him snooping," Lorie explained quickly. "We were on break and were walking towards town hall to check on process when we saw him being dragged inside."

Matt was already at the door, sliding his hoody on and strapping his scabbard that held his sheathed blade onto his waist and said, "Let's go."

Claire was right behind him, tripping over her own two feet as she grabbed her knife and attached it to her waist and grabbing Silena's hoody. She slid the grey fabric over her head smoothly and said, "Ready."

Matt wanted to tell her to stay, but he knew that he'd just be wasting his breath. The idea of actually tying her up was idly floating around in the back of his head, and if Claire ever found out about that, he'd get the cold shoulder for quite a while. Snow was falling lightly as the group of four walked out into the street. The son of Ares looked at Lorie and said, "You and Silena need to go and find some back up."

"What?" Lorie demanded. "No way, we've been here longer wi-"

"Exactly," Matt said, cutting her off, "You've been here longer. These people know you! Luke needs help and if a stranger tries to rally some help, nothings gonna happen."

Lorie looked up at him for a moment before nodding finally. "Alright, let's go."

He and Claire took off in the opposite direction as Lorie and Silena, heading down the cold street briskly, praying to Ares that he wasn't too late.

Town hall was, as always, the largest and the most lavish building in the town. He and Claire looked at the front of the building and sighed. "Direct approach?"

"That's fine with me," she shrugged. "Just pray that Silena and Lorie make it back with help in time."

"Been doing that since we separated," he muttered. "Let's get this over with."

He went to take a step, but thought better of it, choosing to grab Claire's shoulder gently and turn her around so that she was facing him curiously. Leaning down he kissed her lightly and said, "Be careful."

"You too," she commanded.

Matt nodded in agreement and both of them marched up the stairs and through the glass doors. As they walked inside the heat hit them and Matt was accustomed to the burning sensation and ignored it, basking in the fact that it wasn't forty degrees in the building.

It was a modestly sized room, green and yellow carpet dominated the middle of it, weaving an intricate pattern that was both distracting and annoying. Around the carpet were off-white tiles, almost making him feel as though he was in, hospital again. It seemed to be only one story so far, but the room went up at least thirty feet, maybe more, creating a dome-shaped ceiling. There was a huge counter with eight stations, all empty, and a metal detector about ten feet in front of each station. And it was quiet. On a Sunday it wasn't uncommon for official buildings to be closed, but normally if an establishment was closed it was locked, the door gave them easy access.

Matt looked around uneasily, not liking what was going on at all. There were two doors on either side of the room and he knew what was about to happen one was a trap and the other was the way they needed to go.

"Like it or not, Matt," Claire said, "We're gonna have to-"

"-split up," Matt said finishing the sentence for her. "I know. I take left you take right?"

He looked over at Claire who had a deathly serious expression on her face. She nodded mutely. Both walked toward their designated door and without looking back, they walked in.

Matt closed the door behind him and looked forward. It was more of that damned tile, fluorescent lights on the ceiling, and stark white walls lined with doors. He took a cautious step forward and sighed. It was now or never.

He began walking at a slow and steady pace, looking from side to side, never letting his mind wander or his guard down. His footsteps echoed lightly off the floor and the walls, making him curse the still air. He had a bronze dagger in his hand, fearing that a sword would be too bulky for such a small hall.

When he got to the first door, he saw that it was cracked open. Pushing on it slowly so that it didn't make a sound, he looked inside and grimaced. The office was in ruins, the desk was turned over, chairs were broken into pieces, and papers were scattered everywhere. The room was still dark as he stepped inside. He looked beside him and saw the light switch and turned it on, it really did look better in the dark. Most of the papers that were scattered had a red discoloration to it, dark red... blood red.

He had to swallow back a lump in his throat as he continued to look around. Drops of dried blood were littering the white carpet, leading to what looked to be a supply closet. Matt took a deep breath and let it out, locking all of his emotions away; it was time to be a mercenary. As he opened the door he had to jump out of the way as a body hit the ground. It was a middle aged woman, brown hair slightly wrinkled skin. He saw that her shirt had been ripped at the bottom along with her skin; he was able to see loose strands of both. He checked her neck and felt no pulse, and the skin that he touched was cold.

He sighed and stood up, looking around for something to at least cover her up with, when he found nothing, he pulled his hoody off and laid it over her body, praying to the gods for a strong stomach to get through this with.

He left the room behind and walked to the one across the hallway. Opening the door slowly, he peered inside and saw that the office had the same treatment. As he turned on the light, he let out a sigh of relief. The office was a mess but there was no blood. He still stepped inside and looked in the supply closet. Nothing was to be found though, unless someone included paper, and ink cartridges. He allowed his eyes to scan the room one more time, someone had apparently gotten away, but it made no sense because no alarm had been raised.

He inwardly shrugged and would keep a sharper look out for someone incase they needed help.

**CLAIRE:**

As soon as she stepped into the hallway, she felt a tingling sensation on the back of her neck, which made tremors travel down her spine unpleasantly. She shivered slightly before taking a step further inside. The hallway was completely silent except for the extremely light sounds coming from her sneakers. She looked around carefully and saw that the hallway was completely void of anything but walls. No doors, no decorations, not even a notification board for the employees to look at for upcoming events.

Straight ahead, she saw that there was a turn coming up, with a door at the end. Sliding her dagger out of its sheath, hating how audible the sound was, she started to quicken her pace slightly.

She stopped about five feet shy of the corner and placed her back against the wall. Sliding along it, she stopped at the edge and peered around the corner. One lone dracaenae was coming forward and Claire was unsure of what to do. All options seemed to fly out of the window as the monster took a deep breath of air through her nose. Claire heard the snake trunks pick up pace and she figured that she was either about to be lunch or have an alarm casted. Neither seemed like a good idea.

Claire jumped out of her hiding place and startled the upcoming dracaenae. Taking advantage of the surprise, she grabbed the spear that was in the snake woman's loosened grip and wrenched it away from her. Not hesitating, she stuck it in the chink of armor between her helmet and bodily armor. She disintegrated with a loud wail and Claire cursed her bad luck.

The sound echoed down both parts of the hall and if anybody was anywhere near, they were bound to have heard it. Picking up the spear, which was the only thing left behind, she ran toward the door and tried it.

Locked.

Cursing her bad luck, she placed her hand over the knob again and concentrated, thinking about how much Luke needed her. In seconds the lock clicked and she rushed inside, just as the sound of upcoming footsteps was becoming audible. As soon as she shut the door, everything became pitch black. Reaching out with the rest of her senses, she struggled to figure out exactly what was going on. Just then, a light was switched on, momentarily blinding and stunning Claire. Turning around, she saw a beautiful woman with pitch black hair, red eyes, and sharp and long teeth.

"You've been a naughty child," she purred.

Before Claire could even open her mouth, the woman's hand darted forward and she was slammed backward against what felt like boxes, though she really didn't know because she hadn't had a chance to look around. Her head was swimming as she looked up at her. She felt cold hands and sharp nails digging into the skin of her neck as she was lifted up by it. Her feet were dangling in the air and she gasped for breath, her eyesight dimming considerably.

She couldn't cry out for help, not that any would be nearby. She opened her mouth, desperately attempting to pull some air into her lungs but the path was completely blocked off. And then she was airborne, limply flying backwards, her back hit a cement wall, followed by her head. She groaned from the pain as she slid to the floor. She saw the woman walking toward her, a sinister smile on her beautiful and pale face. She saw a hand coming toward her that she feebly tried to block, and then darkness.

**MATT:**

He hadn't found anymore bodies, and all of the offices had been torn apart. He figured that the manticore and his followers were looking for something, but he didn't know what.

As he walked out of the last office, he looked around carefully. There was one more door and he was weary. He hadn't come across any trouble and that was rarely a good thing. This door, unlike the others, was closed. When he tried the knob, it wouldn't turn. Sighing heavily he fished around his pockets, thanking Claire for urging him to learn how to pick locks. It took him a minute or so, much slower than any gifted child of Hermes, but when he was rewarded with a satisfactory click, he felt pretty clever.

This time when he tried, the knob turned and he slowly opened the door. Seeing no immediate danger, he slipped inside and looked around. He seemed to be in a storage room, there were metal steps in front of him and as he looked down he saw that lanterns and torches were burning dimly, giving off a circle of light, and what he saw in the middle of it caused his heart to freeze. Luke was in a chair with his arms bound behind his back. A tall man was pacing in front of him while Luke looked up at him boredly.

"I don't know how many times I have to tell you no one is co-"

Luke was cut off when the man abruptly turned and brought his hand down onto his cheek. Matt was probably twenty feet away from him and ten feet above him, and heard the sound as if it was right beside him.

Matt took the time of the painful looking distraction to rush down the stairs and saw a large crate, crouching behind it; he quietly peered around it and at the scene in front of him.

"Shut up!" the man growled. "You're lucky I haven't killed you yet!"

"Lucky?" Luke laughed. "Really? You're not in charge. Someone else is controlling this; they wouldn't let an incompetent fool like you lead anything!"

"You're right, Castellan," a cold voice said coming from across the storage room. He saw a door open, casting light before closing again. Immediately he hid. Then he heard the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the ground. Matt looked again, and felt the blood drain from his face. Claire was lying on the ground, blood seeping from her hairline. It took all of his self control not to move in. The person that threw Claire was a tall woman with black hair, poker straight, and horrifying red eyes. It took Matt all of two, seconds to recognize her. She was Mormo.

"And who is this?" the man asked maliciously.

Luke was silent but Matt saw the distress in his eyes clear as day before he hid it. "How am I supposed to know?"

It was the perfect poker face.

"Why do I not believe you?" Mormo demanded.

"No idea," Luke replied sounding indifferent, his voice was even more controlled than Claire's in a lie.

"Then I guess she's of no use," Mormo shrugged. Matt watched in silent horror as Mormo purred, "I'm in dire need of a snack anyway." The goddess picked Claire up and started inching her startlingly sharp teeth toward her neck.

He tensed, prepared to jump, but before he could Luke yelled, "Wait! Don't hurt her!"

Claire was dropped to the ground like a rag doll on the ground, her head hitting the cement with an audible thump. Mormo practically materialized next to Luke and gripped him by his neck roughly. "You said that the incompetent fool wasn't in charge, fleshling," she snarled, "well you're right, I am. Now start talking if you want her to ever wake up again!"

She let go of Luke, who began coughing violently. The look the son of Hermes gave her was the same look that Claire gave him in the Maze months previously, and it was just as scary the second time.

"There's been a disturbance in the front room!" a voice shouted loudly from the opposite side of the room, the side that Mormo came from.

The room turned silent again and Matt felt the tension escalate. "I have other places to be," the sinister woman growled. "Let us both go up there, monster. We may be able to clear this up quickly."

"What about them?" the man replied. Matt was guessing he was the manticore.

"Anderson!" Mormo shouted.

"Ma'am?" Came the reply, it was the same guy that had called seconds before.

"Stay down here and make sure these two idiots don't escape," Mormo commanded.

He heard footsteps against metal echoing across the room. Matt hid again, afraid of being found out. A few moments of silence later, he looked around again, and saw a guy in full armor, helmet and all, standing with his back to the crate that he was crouching behind.

"How does it feel being all tied up, Castellan?" the guy, Anderson, taunted.

"I don't know, Brian," Luke replied coldly. "How does it feel to be a traitor to your cabin?"

"You should know all about that," Brian shot back.

Seeing no better openings, Matt tensed up and jumped forward, tackling the unsuspecting demigod to the ground, a bit closer to Claire than he would have preferred. Brian tried to turn but Matt slammed his face into the cement as soon as he lifted his head up. The guard was out like a light before he had even properly assessed what was happening.

"I was wondering what you were waiting on," Luke's calm voice came from above him, still tied in the chair. "I figured you would have unleashed hell as soon as you saw Claire... probably a good thing you didn't."

Matt pushed himself off Brian and walked over to the son of Hermes, cutting him loose. Without waiting for Luke to even get up, Matt flashed to Claire's side. He tenderly lifted her head into his lap and shook her softly, silently commanding her to get up. "Claire," he said. "Claire, you've gotta wake up."

She just remained limp as he shook her insistently. Giving up moments later, he dug into the middle of his hoody, producing a squished bag of ambrosia. Forcing her mouth open, he slid a small piece in and closed it, hoping that it would work soon. He looked at her, his gaze unwavering, as if that alone would make her wake up.

He felt a hand on his shoulder, jumping slightly, he looked up and saw Luke standing there, his face deathly serious. "I'm gonna go up and see if I can do anything go help the disturbance out. You stay and make sure she's okay and when she wakes up, if she feels up to it, come out and help."

Matt nodded and looked down at Claire again, running his fingers through her tangled hair in what was a hopefully soothing manner.

~_**THEFINALBATTLE~**_

It took Claire about fifteen minutes after Luke left to come around. Her eyes fluttered open and she blinked rapidly, probably trying to get used to the light. She looked at him curiously and winced. "What happened?" she asked hoarsely.

"I'm not entirely sure," Matt told her softly. "But nothing good. Are you okay?"

"My head and right arm," she said, audibly trying not to groan. "Broken arm and my head..." she inhaled sharply from the pain, "I don't even know... I'm not entirely sure that I want to."

Matt pulled another piece out of the ambrosia baggie and placed it in her mouth. She silently chewed and swallowed it, closing her eyes and sighing quietly, the tenseness leaving her shoulders.

"How is your head?" Matt questioned.

"Getting better," she replied, sounding out of breath.

Biting his lips, he said, "Claire, I've gotta go and help..."

She started moving to get to her feet, the way she moved made it obvious that she was in pain. "I'll go with-"

Matt placed a placating hand on her shoulder and pushed her down lightly. "You're in no shape to anywhere."

She was in good enough shape to glare at him. "I'm not going to-"

"Oh yes you are," Matt assured her, cutting the fuming daughter of Hermes off before she could even finish. "You're gonna stay down here."

Shifting out of his position, being sure to keep her head cushioned with his hand, he moved so that he was beside her. Without waiting for a comment, he scooped her up in his arms. She automatically curled up, leaning her head so that it was resting on the crook of his neck. He walked over to the stairs that he came from and up them. Squinting his eyes from the harshness of the light coming from the open door, he walked through and kicked it shut behind him. He heard the sound of yelling and shouting coming from the front room and he figured that it didn't mean anything good. He walked to the nearest room and pushed it open. There was a plush desk chair upturned by the corner across the room from the door. Immediately he walked over, adjusted Claire so that he was supporting most of her weight but she was standing on her feet, and bent down to pick the chair up.

"Sit down," he said quietly.

Claire was still for a moment and Matt thought that she was going to insist on accompanying him again. She didn't though; she just gripped his shoulder and walked unsteadily forward for half a step before her legs gave out on her. Matt caught her before she could fall more than a few inches, thankfully, and set her in the chair gently.

"You're right," she said after a second of her catching her breath. "If I come, I'll be more harm than help." She looked up at him and glared slightly. "Don't look so smug about it."

"Nothing," Matt assured her, kneeling so that they were eye to eye, "about you being like this makes me smug."

Claire nodded and sighed. "Go and kill some monsters for me," Matt smiled and nodded before standing up and turning around, he walked hurriedly to the door but Claire called his name before he could get very far. He looked back at her as he was in the door way with a raised eyebrow. "Please be careful."

"Aren't I always?" he questioned.

Claire snorted. "No."

He rolled his eyes and said, "I'll try. Promise."

He waited until he saw a smile come to her face before jogging out of the room and toward the fight.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

He hadn't seen a battle this crowded since the Titian war and he wasn't thrilled to see it again. Demigods were clashing swords against monsters, Matt saw a pair of demigods fighting here and there, but it was mostly dracaenae, hellhounds, and giants. Like an idiot, Matt stood there and watched it go on for a second motionlessly. Until he got a tingling sensation on his neck and ducked down just in time to avoid being impaled with a dart.

"I knew I smelled another visitor," a snarling voice said from behind him. Matt turned and raised his sword in time to catch a hand full of sharp claws. He jumped back, knocking into something behind him. He didn't bother replying to the man, he would probably need his breath.

The man jumped at him again, flicking a projectile into the air while his claws came barring down on him. Matt ducked out of the way of the dart and sidestepped the claw, bringing his sword up to slash against the man's chest, which was covered in a grey business suit. It was classy, covered in a bit of blood, but classy. The blade cut through the suit, but the manticore jumped out of the way before it could even make contact with flesh. Matt heard him snarl and cringed at the menacing sound. He didn't have a moment to take a breather as his blade finished the arc into the open air, the claws slashed at his open back. He arched forward enough to prevent the full damage of the blow, but not to dodge it completely. His back throbbed and it was probably bleeding badly, but he ignored it. He finished his spin and used the momentum to jump up and plant a kick on the monster's face. The manticore must not have been expecting it, because he tried to dodge too late and the full impact of the kick landed on his cheek bone and caused his face to snap to the side.

Matt jumped out of immediate retaliation range and inhaled deeply. The man ran forward again, but before he could reach him, a person jumped at him from the behind and knocked him face first into the ground. It was Luke. The son of Hermes rolled to his feet right beside Matt without missing a beat. Both ran forward and attacked the beast while it was trying to get to its feet. It didn't seem to have an issue fighting two on one, dodging their strikes effortlessly, while they blocked his.

Matt ducked to dodge a powerful looking swing from a claw, but he got a bit too close to the things leg, and he felt the things knee make contact with his cheek, missing his nose narrowly. He knocked backward off his feet, skidding across the tile and coming to a stop at someone's feet. His head swam slightly and his vision blurred, but as a hand came down and grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to his feet it cleared. He saw Beckendorf there, grinning slightly. Matt attempted to give on in return, but he felt a stinting sensation in his right cheek. He tasted blood, a lot of blood. He spat on the floor and all he saw come out was red... great.

He nodded in thanks to Beckendorf before turning and running back to help Luke out. When he got there, the son of Hermes seemed to have taken a toll on the man. There were more slash marks through his suit, all of them bleeding. Matt ran at him and faked a slice at his neck, instead bringing his leg up and connecting it with his ducking face. The monster stumbled backward and Luke was there suddenly, his sword coming down toward the monster, but before he could hit him, he was gone.

In a matter of seconds the entire room went silent and still. Matt looked around and realized why. Not just the manticore was gone, all the monsters were and he didn't see Mormo either. After a moment a loud voice that he didn't recognized broke the silence, "Cowards!"

He saw the boy, he was really short with blond hair and blue eyes, a quiver of arrows was on his back and a knife was in his hand. A moment later the vaguely familiar boy (he was sure his name started with a 'M') exclaimed that, the entire room erupted into cheers and shouts of victory.

Matt didn't join them, he rushed toward the door where Claire was waiting, but he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Turning around, he saw a sweaty and smiling Luke, "Nice fighting. I think I knew your friend in the Titian army... you both fight similarly... Oliver Evans?"

Matt nodded and said, "That's him... I've gotta go."

Luke nodded, "She probably wants to know that you're okay." Matt turned away from him and paused when Luke said, "she's probably not going to be too pleased with that cut on your back."

That was when the pain of his various injuries hit him. Claire was probably gonna kill him. "Oh, she won't," Matt assured him before twisting the knob and walking through.

He walked quickly and made it to the room where Claire was. Opening the door and rushed in, to see her tiredly sitting in the chair, her hair sticking out slightly from where Matt was sure she'd ran it through with her fingers.

"Are you alright?" she breathed, tensing up slightly as if she was about to get out of the chair.

"Fine," he assured her.

"Then why are your teeth red?" she demanded.

"Small mouth bleed," he shrugged, wincing as he felt his back throb from the cuts. That was when she did stand up. She walked toward him steadily enough and Matt was sure that she was going to start telling him off, but she didn't. She just walked behind him and he felt her pull his now no good hoody up. Moments later she appeared in front of him, and stood on her tip toes, laying a cool hand gently on the bruising part of his face that had been kneed by the manticore.

Her free hand dug into his hoody pocket and pulled out the baggie of ambrosia. He just stood stalk still, waiting for her to start biting his head off. She never did though. "Here," she said softly, holding a piece of ambrosia to his lips.

He opened his mouth and allowed her to slip the godly food inside. He chewed and swallowed quickly and had to hold back a sigh as the pain dulled. "You're not angry?" Matt questioned.

Claire smiled an oddly soft and tender smile and said, "I'm just happy that you didn't get hurt any worse. I was worried."

"How about you?" Matt questioned. "Are you okay?" He placed a hand on her cheek as she looked up at him. "You look better."

"My head an arm still hurt," she admitted with a small sigh as if she was surrendering. "But I think I'll live."

"Maybe you should sit down," Matt said, gesturing to the chair.

Claire shook her head and gripped his hand in her own. "I'm fine. Let's get out of here."

Before thet could take two steps, a bright light flashed and Matt felt weightlessness.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**JAMES:**

Seph looked at James' arm worriedly as he cut the connection. The hastily wrapped gauze was looking worse and worse by the second, and he didn't look very good himself. He saw her looking at him and rolled his eyes, "I'm fine, Current." Sure it stung, but he'd live, he'd definitely had worse.

As he watched her expression change into what was supposed to be a placated one, he could tell she wasn't convinced, but she didn't say anything.

He walked over to a snow-covered tree and leaned his back against it, sliding down. He pulled off the gauze and grimaced slightly. The bleeding had stopped, but that just let him observe the muscle that was contracting every time he clenched his fist. "Oh gods," Seph breathed. "It went deeper than I thought."

James looked away from the pieces of skin that was dangling limply from the top of his arm and up at her. "It s not that bad."

Sighing she kneeled down beside him and sighed, "This is all my-"

"No its not," he said cutting her off. "If it's anyone's fault, it's mine."

Seph looked at him for a second longer, staring at him arm worriedly for another before she dug into her pocket. After a moment she pulled out a baggie of ambrosia and handed him a piece. He popped it into his mouth and almost groaned at the feeling of it working its way through his body, relishing in the taste of his mother's chocolate brownies.

He winced at the itching feeling that his arm got when the torn tissue began knitting itself back together again. He felt something grip the hand of his uninjured arm. He looked over and saw, with a certain amount of surprise and no small amount of pleasure, that it was Seph intertwining their fingers together. She sat beside him and he leaned his head down, resting it on her shoulder. She leaned her head slightly so that her cheek was resting on his cheek. James allowed himself to take in the beautiful landscape, they were thickly surrounded by trees, wanting to take the fight with the monstrous dog as far away from mortals as possible, and snow covered the ground in a thin blanket, the bare branches of the trees catching most of the snow.

A sharp gust of wind cut through the trees and stole what little warmth his body had left. He began shivering slightly, not even bothering to hide it.

"You're cold," Seph said after another second of silence. He was about to sarcastically reply, but before he could she was already speaking again. "Let's wrap your arm up and get going."

James nodded, knowing that she would be able to feel his head move. He sat up as she shifted around to his right side and began digging into her pockets for a bag of gauze.

"Do you carry everything in your pockets?" James demanded, hating how drowsy he sounded.

Seph frowned at him. Not the angry kind of frown, the worried kind. An icy hand came up and pressed lightly against his forehead. He cringed slightly and shivered again.

"You've got a fever," she sighed.

"Are you sure?" James asked. He never got sick.

Seph rolled her eyes; she leaned forward and pressed her lips against his forehead. They were cold too.

"Yes," she replied in a controlled tone, as if she was still concerned and didn't want to show it. She unwrapped a sterile piece of gauze and wrapped his arm with it.

After a moment of consideration, he grabbed her wrist, causing her to freeze. "Hey," he whispered, looking into her eyes. "Is everything okay?"

She nodded mutely and began wrapping his arm again. He saw the troubled look in her eyes again but didn't comment on it.

**~THEFINALBATTLE**

**SEPH:**

They made it back to her apartment without any trouble. She felt irritable though; James was hurt because he still thought that she was too incompetent to take care of herself, and kept trying to protect her. Needless to say she wasn't in a very chatty mood on the way home and the fact that James kept sending her worried glances wasn't helping it. As they walked into the apartment, she took her jacket off and placed it on the coat rack. James was right behind her, slowly taking his jacket off. She felt his eyes on her as she walked over to the couch and plopped down. He walked over to the couch and sat next to her. He placed his back against the plush black arm and stared at her, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong with you yet?" he demanded.

"Nothing's wrong," she lied, looking away from him and at the black screen of the television. "I wonder where mom and dad are." It was a sad attempt to change the conversation, but she really was curious, she figured that they would have been back from their errands before she and James had gotten back from theirs. Leaning forward, she grabbed the remote from the table and was about to turn it on, hoping that James would take the hint.

"Don't lie to me," he snapped at her, snatching the remote out of her hand and setting it back on the table. He crossed his arms and looked at her demandingly.

She shifted slightly, feeling uncomfortable from the look. Getting up from the couch, she walked toward the hallway, "I'm not lying, but I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap."

She stalked down the hallway, and once again prayed that James could take a hint. Gods, he really just couldn't. She heard his footsteps behind her and figured that she would just have to slam the door in his face and have to put up with him later. That apparently wasn't his plan. She got to her room and reached for her knob when a hand beat her to it first. She paused and felt the heat from his body radiating on her back. She turned around and pressed her back against the door as she realized how close he was. "What?" she asked irritably.

"I want to know what's wrong with you," James informed her. "What did I do?"

Seph looked up at him and blinked, "Nothing is wrong," she sighed, "I'm just tire-"

"Do you understand how long I've known you?" James snapped. "This is what... three years if you include the time that Olympus was down. I know how you act when you're tired, when you're sore, when you're pissed off at someone else, and how you act when you're pissed off at me. So spill it."

Seph looked at him, feeling something between annoyance and admiration, he was stubborn and observant. She bit her bottom lip and said, "Why don't you think I can take care of myself?"

James blinked and frowned at her, confusion plain on his features. "What do you mean?"

"Don't play stupid with me, Tempest," she snapped. "I know you think I'm weak. Is it because of when I was overpowered by the serum on Olympus and killed Skylar against my will?"

James cringed at the mention of the disastrous event. "Seph-"

"Don"t 'Seph' me," she snapped, "I don't want to hear it. Do you think I"m any weaker for being subdued? I mean I _know_ I was weak, and I still am, but I think I'm strong enough to kill a hellho-"

"Don't call yourself weak, Seph," James snapped at her, his voice sounded angry and dangerous. "Youre not weak! _I_ was the one that was too weak to save you. You were relying on me; _I_ was the one that didn't find you in time, the one that didn't fight hard enough to make you stick with us... to let me go instead of you. I'm so sorry," he said quietly. "It should have been me that went, not you."

Seph froze as she heard the words. "James," she breathed, "I..."

"Just forget it," he sighed, letting go of his knob and standing back to let her inside.

"It shouldn't have been you," she said as he turned around and began walking away. She didn't know what she was doing or why she was doing it, all she knew was that James didn't need to feel guilty for something that she didn't regret doing. Sacrificing herself was an agreeable price to pay as long as her friends got away in time.

He paused and turned around, "Seph," his voice was thick with guilt. "It wasn't supposed to be you. It's my job to protect you. I already failed. _That's_ why I pushed you out of the way of the hound, because I already failed you once and it hurt _so bad_ I don't think I could go through that pain again. Trust me, it wasn't you."

"It wasn't your fault," Seph said firmly, "I don't blame you for what happened when the world fell, and you killed me trying to save Skylar, _knowing_ that I was going to come back as long as you completed the mission. I wasn't useful anymore there and Skylar was, that's all that matters." She inhaled deeply and took a step closer to him, grabbing his hand and squeezing it tightly. "You sacrificed _everything_ and all I've been to you is terrible."

She looked down at the floor, unable to meet his gaze. That was when she heard a soft laugh. When she looked up, she saw James standing there, a pained smile on his face and his hand was squeezing her back gently. "We really need to stop feeling sorry for each other."

Before Seph could reply, she had a pair of soft lips covering hers in a small kiss. This time she didn't push him back. Pulling her hand away from where it was being held by him, she wrapped it around his neck and pulled him closer, feeling the smile on his mouth. She kissed him back, returning the now forceful kiss with equal force, and thoroughly enjoying the feeling of electricity running through her body. Her hands ran through his buzzing hair as he rubbed a hand up and down her spine, creating a tingling sensation. When he pulled back slightly, she felt incredibly dizzy and blinked hard.

She felt his forehead leaning against hers and his breath blowing softly across her face. As distracting as his heavy breathing was, she also felt the heat coming off his skin, making her remember the fact that he had a fever. Oh gods.

"James," she said softly. "You're sick."

"I'm fine now," he said softly, leaning down, obviously to steal another kiss, and as unopposed to the idea as Seph was, she put a hand up to his mouth to stop him from coming any closer. He looked at her confusedly.

"You need to rest with that fever of yours."

Really?" he said looking at her with exasperation, "you're gonna make me rest _now?"_

Seph nodded and pointed to the guest room, "Let's go."

James rolled his eyes but he consented.

**JAMES:**

Walking to his room, he placed his hand on the door but turned around to look at Seph, who was still watching him from the middle of the hallway. "Do we need to talk about this?"

Seph raised an eyebrow and took half a step closer to him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean do we need to talk about what just happened," James said. "I need to know."

"We can talk about that later," Seph said calmly, "when you feel better."

She walked over and placed her hands on his chest. Sliding one up, she cupped his face there and whispered, "I just want you to get some rest."

Seeing this as his window of opportunity, he leaned down and cut off whatever she was going to say next. He halfway expected her to pull back, but she didn't. She practically met him halfway. By this time her other hand was on his face, while he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her flush against him, feeling his back hit the doorknob uncomfortably and completely ignoring it.

She pulled away from him, her breath slightly ragged just like his. Her hands slid off his face and around his neck.

There was a bright flash of light around him and he clenched his eyes shut, pulling Seph flush against him by automatic reaction, trying to protect her from whatever was wrong.

**Long chapter and long week. Pleeeeaaassseeee review! It'll cheer me up because I have a LOT of HW...**


	16. Not Again

**JAMES:**

He couldn't breath. Heck he couldn't think! His vision was gone and a burning fire tore through his body, feeling like alcohol on an open and infected wound. All of his senses were dulled and the mind-blowing pain was all that was reality. His grip tightened on something that was against him, he felt nails digging into the already burning skin of his chest. He was rigid and tense, glued to the spot of where ever he was as the fierce torrent of flames made their way through his veins, no wound that he'd received before had anything on what he was going through. And the worse part was that he was defenseless to the attack, he couldn't fight back because at the moment he didn't see anything to fight.

Finally a large burst of pain flared through him and his energy drained. His knees buckled and he his rigidity broke, he felt himself fall and then absolutely nothing.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

He woke up groggily, his head was pounding. He was on a cool and hard surface. He registered light from behind his shut eyelids and shivered slightly as a cold breeze surrounded him. The rest of his senses were slowly starting to come back to him and he heard the distant sound of someone talking. At first it was unintelligible, but it was becoming clearer as the person continued person was calling his name. He was still too out of it to comprehend was was going on, and his eyelids felt too heavy to lift.

He felt pressure on his shoulder and it was causing him to rock back and forth, becoming increasingly annoying and uncomfortable. Though it caused awareness, which was coming back at a snail's pace, to creep up a bit quicker, the awareness made less sense than oblivion did. He remembered hugging Seph, a bright light, and pain... unimaginable pain. He had no idea what caused it, though.

Seph... his mind flashed back to the most important name as the need to make sure she was alright set in. His mouth made an unintelligible groaning noise as he forced his eye lids open, blinking slowly and clumsily as he tried to take in a clear image of what was happening. He was on the floor of a familiar home... his home. He saw the door to his room and the one in the back was the one that Seph normally slept in with McKenna and Skylar whenever they stayed over.

Seph's mother was leaning over him, brushing the hair out of his face worriedly. "Seph," he groaned, trying to sit up.

The dark haired woman held him down firmly and said, "No, sweetheart, stay down. What happened?"

"Where's Seph?" James demanded, ignoring her.

"Wh-who?" Mrs. Current asked shakily.

"Your daughter," James said, feeling his energy coming back quickly now that he was awake. He looked around with clearer vision and a clearer mind as he tried to figure out what was going on. Two seconds later he groaned as realization set in, along with a cold fist that was clenched around his heart. He sat up and his head pounded slightly.

He saw Mrs. Current looking at him with a frozen expression of grief as if he had spoken on a forbidden subject. He looked away from her and back around the hallway, trying to make sure that his assumption was correct and praying to Jupiter that it was not... then again if he was correct Jupiter wasn't going to be able to help him now. As he looked back at the older woman, he realized that he was correct, the look of sadness and horror was answer enough.

His entire being froze over as he realized that was thought was going on really was going on. Scrambling to his feet, he ran into the front room and saw that the furniture was as he remembered with the red leather couch and black cloth chairs, mismatched and a complete mess, but a complete luxury. The fireplace was blazing and warmth was spreading through the room. James ignored it and Destinee's pleas for him to stop and come back to her. He simply kept running until he got to the door. Flinging it open, he walked out and looked around at the darkening clouds and the playing children in the yard. He saw Avery laughing in delight as they ran by the porch after a rolling soccer ball.

He saw two people walking down the dirt road, the taller figure was carrying a baby in his arms and a black dog was trailing behind them as they walked along. He ran off the small porch that was connected to their house and over to the trio. Slowing down to a stop when he was maybe two feet from them, he looked at Matt and Claire. A strong wind raced through and chilled him down to the bone considering he was only in a short sleeved shirt.

He stuck his hands in his pockets and felt a piece of paper crumpling under his touch. He ignored it as Matt spoke up, "What the hell's going on?"

"I don't know," James responded. "Seph's gone, though, I think she's still in Manhattan."

"That means that Oliver is out there somewhere too," Claire stated worriedly. Matt shifted slightly as Alice, a small child at one and a half, was sleeping soundly on his shoulder.

James looked down at the ground after a moment sighing quietly. Hearing the sound of crunching gravel, his head snapped up again, and he saw four others racing up toward them from the same direction. Skylar, Will, Zach, and McKenna. All of them seemed stricken and on the verge of flipping out. Skylar, who made it to a stumbling stop beside him first, said, "What's going on?"

"I wish I knew," James replied. Sighing, he said, "I've gotta go."

"Where to?" Skylar demanded. "We don't know what's going on! Separating is not a good idea!"

"I have to," James snapped. "Seph's still in Manhattan." He walked toward the house. "But first, I have to go and explain everything to Destinee. I would suggest you do the same for your parents."

**MATT:**

They watched in silence as James walked back inside to break the strange news to Mrs. Current. Matt turned back around and looked at the others, Alice was stirring slightly due to the strong wind and Matt pulled on his cloak so that she was wrapped in it too. She snuggled into his chest contentedly. "We woke up in a car," Claire said. "It wasn't the Chevy, it was the Accord, so we came back... this is the second time."

Matt nodded in agreement. "It is... so that means that its the... twenty first of October, right?" he glanced at Claire with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Claire said finally. "That sounds about right."

"We've been here for a year and four months?" Will demanded. "Do you know how long it took Olympus to fall? I didn't go until page January or early February!"

"We're just gonna have to go with it til everything sorts itself out," Zach said after a moment.

"And what if it doesn't?" McKenna demanded. "What I everything stays the screwed up way it is now?"

"Them we deal with it," Matt said curtly, turning to look at the younger daughter of Poseidon. "We're demigods its what we do."

McKenna didn't say anything under his harsh stare. No one did. "We need to tell our families," Will said finally. He looked at Matt in the eyes and said, "Alice needs to get inside anyways, she's cold."

Matt looked back at the blonde boy's blue eyes and nodded. "Let's go then."

He looked at Claire as everyone else walked off. "I'll take Alice back to my place and lay her down, you go and break the news to Helena and Jerry."

"No,"Claire said. "Mom'll wanna see Alice, besides, it's a much shorter walk."

Matt smiled and wrapped his free arm around Claire and pulling her toward him so that she was under the cloak too. "Why," Matt questioned, "do I get the distinctive feeling that your parents hate me?"

"Because they do," Claire replied quietly, her arms wrapping around him as she rested her head on the side of his chest.

"Why?" Matt asked, feeling slightly upset that her parents didn't approve of him.

"They haven't liked you since we first got back with Alice. You remember my stepfather's first question?"

"When did I get you pregnant," Matt said, smirking at the memory, "And when did I plan on proposing."

He felt Claire laugh lightly from beside him as he kept talking. "I honestly thought Jerry was going to punch me."

They turned onto another street, and Matt felt Claire's cold fingers slip under his shirt, and the soft skin travel upward until it reached the middle of his back where he'd been struck by the manticore, making every single question that he had die in his throat. "It's a scar," she said quietly in his ear.

Matt shrugged, used to having them all over, it wasn't really that much of a big deal.

"You know," Claire said, moving her hand off his back and wrapping it around him from the outside, "if you keep getting scars, that's all you're gonna be."

"I thought girls liked scars," Matt said, snorting as be remembered Oliver telling him the same thing.

"Sure they do," she replied, leaning up and pressing her lips against the large scar on his neck. "But that doesn't mean I want you getting yourself hurt anymore."

He looked away from Claire, not feeling a need to respond to her statement in words. His eyes flickered to the reddish brown dirt road they were on first, then to the small baby sleeping in his arms, her thumb hidden in her mouth as small puffs of air came from around the digit. Matt smiled at her before looking around at the sight of small children playing in the yards, the dying grass was slippery from dew and puddles of rainwater, causing some of them to fall. The sound of their high pitch screams actually being a cheerful shrieks of laughter was enough to make him feel a bit better.

He glanced at Claire who was smiling up at him. The three of them turned into the yard with a large, two story house sitting in the middle.

"You know," Matt said thoughtfully, a smirk playing on his lips. "I wonder what they would say if they heard we shared a bed last night."

Claire blushed. "It was this morning."

"At what?" Matt questioned, trying to hold back his laughter as he watched her scowl. "Five thirty? I distinctly remember you kissing me."

They got onto the porch and Claire grabbed the knob and opened the white storm door and pushed it open. "Are you gonna be the one to tell them?"

Matt leaned forward and kissed her gently. "We'll see."

Both entered the house, their footsteps, echoed eerily off the the wooden floor boards as they walked further in. Why her parents took the oldest house on the street... hell in the colony, was beyond him. It was standing in good condition in the revolution, needless to say a lot had changed since then.

As if called, her parents came walking through the entrance room, smiling at Claire and Alice, and glaring at Matt as if he was the spawn of Ate herself. It made him extremely aggravated.

"Hello Mr. And Mrs. Wilson," he said in a neutral tone and he looked at the older couple. Both were in their late fifties.

Both nodded coldly toward him, and Matt figured that he should probably release Claire. Tentatively, he removed his arm from around her waist and the cloak moved from around her shoulders.

He looked at Helena, she had blackish hair that was graying and fell to her shoulders. She was a short woman, maybe five foot two if she was lucky, but there weren't any wrinkles on her face. Just the look of stern disapproval. Jerry wasn't much better, his thick head of hair was completely grey, in the process of turning white. His eyes were nearing a blackish color, they were so dark, and the wrinkles that were on his face were scarce, but Matt was pretty sure the frown lines came from the way he always looked when the son of Ares came around. Exactly how he looked at the moment.

He subtly sent Claire the 'kill me now!' look and she looked at him apologetically. "Matt," Claire said as she gave Helena a hug. "Why don't you go and put Alice down in Amy's old crib? I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Where is it, sweetheart?" Matt questioned, wincing inwardly at the glare that Jerry sent him for the small pet name. He really had to stop doing that.

He saw Claire smile from it and figured that it was worth it as long as she liked it. "In the room beside my bedroom."

Matt stepped forward and walked past the family, glad for the excuse to be out of the room. He walked down the hallway that opened as he walked out of the entrance and passed the closed door of Claire's room. He looked over and saw that Alice was awake and looking at him with a sleepy smile.

"Hi, daddy," she said sleepily.

"Hey, baby girl," Matt said, it still made him feel funny. "You've still gotta be tired."

"No," she mumbled. "Stay with you."

"I've gotta go and talk to your mama and her parents," Matt said. "I can't stay with you right now."

"They say you're taking mama away from them," she sighed, burying her head deeper into his shoulder. "You wouldn't take mama from them, you're too nice."

Matt was silent, wondering how to answer that statement. But he didn't have to because she was sleeping the next second. Matt leaned down and set her into the crib without even turning on the lights. He leaned down and flickered on the small nightlight before turning around and leaving the room. He was glad someone knew that Claire wasn't gonna go anywhere because of him.

**SKYLAR:**

She sat down in the living room of her home and looked over at her mother. She had blonde hair with touches of grey due to stress and blue eyes that were sparkling from concern. Kyle, a tall man with brown hair and hazel eyes, came into the room with a few cups of water and sat down next to his wife and looked at Skylar, resting his elbows on his knees.

She quietly accepted the glass of ice water from her step dad and took a small sip of water before setting it down on the table.

"So Skylar," her mother said, rubbing her long fingers together, and turning slightly so that she was facing the large fireplace. "What is it that you wanted to tell us?"

Taking a deep breath, Skylar closed her eyes and said, "What would you guys say if I told you that I'm not from here..."

Her mom blinked and said, "What do you mean by that?"

"We fought on Olympus," Skylar said.

"We know you did," Kyle interrupted. "That's why we're here."

"I mean about four months from now," Skylar clarified. "We all stormed Olympus because the Tyrants captured Seph."

"Seph..." her mother said as of she was trying to remember a face and person to go with the name. "You mean you're friend at camp who went into Manhattan at the start of all of this?"

Skylar nodded.

The look on her mother's face went from concerned to pained. "Skylar," she said, standing up from beside Kyle and walking over to sit beside her. "We haven't so much as heard from Seph in a year and a half. As much as I hate to say it she's probably dead."

Skylar wanted to tell them that she had died too, but she had the feeling that she was already thought of as crazy, so she kept that small fun fact to herself. So she tried a different route. "We won the battle on Olympus and woke Morpheus up, the Fates sent the whole world back to when we completed the quest for the Owl. We actually put in the proper security measures and Olympus wasn't taken down. I don't know why we're back here, but I do know that Seph isn't dead... she can't be because she's the key to getting out of this mess."

Skylar felt her mother's hand on top of her head, and she heard her mutter, "No fever... did you hit your head on something."

She didn't up until then when she facepalmed. There was no telling these people, "Would you believe me if I had like... six other people tell you?"

"It's not that we don't believe you-"

"Mom please don't lie to a daughter of Hermes," Skylar remarked tiredly.

Everyone was silent for a moment and Skylar sighed before standing up and walking away from her mom. "I'll be back with proof," she said, her tone on the snappy side.

Before her mother or her stepfather could say a word, she was already out the door, slamming it more roughly than necessary.

**Yeah, guys sorry for the length, but it seemed like a pretty good spot to stop. Also: check out my new story "Seeking the Olympians" its a good read and I'm sure it'll help you understand this better. I'm kinda upset about the amount of reviews I've been getting... I just wanna know what you thought of the story, so please review.**

**Anyways lol by a show of hands, who hates me!? And by a show of hands, who has no idea what's going on?! And as for how calmly they took beimg sent back to after Olympua fell... well they seem to take everything in stride, right?**


	17. New Problems Arise

**JAMES:**

James sat in front of Mrs Current and didn't know what to tell her. He stuck his hands in his jeans to show off his discomfort. His right hand came across the paper again. Wanting to do something to keep his jittery hands busy, he pulled it out and unfolded the crumpled sheet. He didn't so much a look at her as he read. _Don't say anything to any one that doesn't wake up with a note_.

The son of Jupiter frowned slightly, he folded it up and slid it into his hoody pocket without reading it further. He looked up at Destinee uneasily, knowing that he needed to be alone to read the note.

"What's that?" she questioned, her voice shaky.

"L-look... I... I just hit my head too hard." he ignored her question and rubbed the back of his head, trying to wince like he did when he hit his head in Fluffy's chamber... good times.

"But you said-"

James shook his head and quickly cut her off, he was a great liar, but she looked too much like Seph for him to lie to her believably. "Just forget it... I was just remembering a friend..." he got up and walked over to the door. He didn't turn around as he spoke, "I'm sorry for the worry."

Before she could ask him to explain anything, he opened the door and walk out. Guilt started eating him alive but he didn't have time to dwell on it, he simply sighed and started making his way down the porch. As soon as his feet hit the cold grass, he succumbed to the urge to run. The air cut through his lungs painfully, but he ignored it surging onward. He managed to get to a clearing on the other side of the colony within minutes, his ability to control wind came in handy as he used it to push him even faster.

He leaned against one of the tall oaks with a thick trunk, and leaves that turned blood red. He slid down to the ground and pulled the note out of his hoody. Unfolding the white paper, he read the elegant handwriting on the inside. _Don't say anything to anyone that isn't mentioned in the note. You've been sent back to October 21st, a year and three months since Olympus fell. It is your responsibility to protect Seph Current, daughter of Poseidon. It has been since you first met her. You failed, and now you have been given a second chance to do what you have to._

_You are now Jupiter's advisor, and have greater power over your father's area of control. Use it wisely and live up to your name._

James blinked and immediately stuffed the note in his pocket. He was halfway surprised that the Fates hadn't written _No pressure._ This wasn't what he had expected. Then again, what was of that he thought was going to happen? It wasn't as though he had expected to be sent back into the hell that was happening all around him. He allowed his mind to wander to the one thing that all Romans were supposed to think about: his job. He had to protect Seph. That meant that he had to get to Manhattan. He pushed himself off the trunk that he was using as a leaning post and walked out of the clump of trees.

The streets were slightly busier on the southern end of the town and James felt a twinge of curiosity, but not enough to make him divert himself from his goal. Then he heard the whistle. Everyone knew what the whistle meant. The scouts had found something wrong. James felt his blood turn to ice. Dennis was on the scout mission that day.

Immediately he began running toward the site of the commotion. He saw Skylar and Will running toward him away from the rapidly growing crowd, troubled looks on their faces.

"What's going on?" the son of Jupiter demanded, trying to look past the growing crowd. "Is anyone hurt?"

"Everyone's okay," Skylar informed him. "But the scouts found an enemy scout in the forest. They're taking him to interrogation now."

The crowd was beginning to disperse and James saw that Dennis and a burly boy with black hair were carrying a small and rather short guy with an arrow sticking out of his side toward the jail house, a few of the prominent leaders in the town following them.

"We offered to go in and help with it," Will said after a moment. "He might have some answers."

James nodded in agreement, "You better go ahead then."

"Want us to see if you can come with us?" Skylar questioned, running a hand through her dirty blonde hair, as she looked up at him worriedly.

James managed a weak smile, "No, I've got a few things to take care of," he took a step back, still looking at the couple. "Go on and see if you can figure anything out."

"James," Skylar said slowly, tilting her head to the side slightly, as if she got a better view of him from the odd angle. "Please don't do anything stupid."

He offered her his crooked smile, something that he hadn't given anyone in a while, having a purpose again really did change him. "I'm not going to do anything stupid. Promise."

He turned around a walked off, saying under his breath, "Idiotic on the other hand..."

As he walked further, the overcast finally began to let down its rain. It was only a drizzle, but he heard the thunder cracking and he figured that he had maybe five minutes before the water started beating down on the town. He walked straight past his small house and saw McKenna and Zach cutting across the lawns probably on their way to Matt's. The clump of trees that separated their colony from the outside world was straight in front of him, colorful leaves falling from their branches rapidly.

Trying not to feel like that wasn't an ominous warning, he began walking forward again, grabbing his car keys from his pocket. Pressing the bronze button on his key ring, he heard the car unlock and start up. James opened the door to his grey Camaro and put it into drive. He turned it around and began heading north, ready to start his job.

**MATT:**

Matt sighed silently as he sat in the ancient living room of the Wilson's home. Claire's parents made it obvious that he wasn't wanted, but for Claire's sake he pretended to be indifferent to the gestures that were being thrown his way. He was sitting on an uncomfortable wooden chair in the corner of the room, across from Claire. Her stepdad had gestured for him to sit there, and Matt knew for a fact that he was getting the most uncomfortable seat in the house both literally and symbolically.

Claire just finished telling the story, and her mother was the first to speak up, gripping her daughter's hand and saying, "Are you sure that you weren't given anything to induce hallucinations?"

He saw the subtle glance Mrs. Wilson threw at him, and had to fight back a swell of anger. He didn't take kindly to those kind implications. He saw Claire's eye twitch, and hoped that she didn't blow up, he was sure they would find a way to blame him for that along with anything else that could go wrong, including them being stuck here. She calmed down at the last minute and shook her head.

"I guess we're stuck here," her mom sighed and looked down at the floor for a moment. Matt had to admit with a certain amount of admiration and amusement, and no small amound of anger, that she bounced back quickly. "We might as well make the best of it. Speaking of the best, there is the nicest boy next door, he seems to have quite the crush on you. He's handsome too! I think his name is Lenny."

That overstepped the line, but he managed to keep his mouth shut by putting his hands in to his jeans pocket and balling them up. His fingers brushed a piece of paper. Feeling curious, he pulled the sheet out. He unfolded it and there were only a few words on it, but the handwriting was elegant enough for him to know what kind of people it was from. The gods.

It said, "_Go into your chest, there are two clues for you to read_."

Not sure whatelse to do, he abruptly stood up and walked out of the room. He figured that he would catch hell from it later, but as he walked out of the house, he was glad he had the excuse. Her parents may have hated him, but the feeling was definitely mutual.

**CLAIRE:**

She saw Matt leave with a slightly troubled face. He didn't even look at her, and she felt terrible. She glared at her mother and wrenched her hand away from her. When her dad tried to place a comforting arm around her shoulder, she stood up and shook it off. "We need to talk."

"About what?" her mother asked, looking at her sharply. "Your poor choice in companions. And I don't know what your problem is. It isn't like you're going out. When are you going to see that he's stringing you along? Now Lenny on the other hand, he seems like a respectable boy."

Claire let out a snort of humorless laughter. "Respectable? He threw me into a tree!"

"What? her mom said. "I'm sure you're mistaken. Are you sure it wasn't that oaf that you call-"

"Don't speak about Matt like that!" Claire said furiously. "He has saved my life so many times I don't know if I'll ever be able to keep count, all he's ever been to you is polite, and all you are to him is terrible! And as for him being an oaf, he's brilliant and one hell of a fighter."

"You can't trust him," her dad said gravely. "Can't you see that? Look at what he did when the world was still up and running."

Claire blinked as the realization hit her. "Let me get this straight. You don't like him because he used to be a mercenary. Mom! You had sex with the god of thieves! Are you really one to talk?"

"That's-"

"What?" Claire laughed sarcastically, "Different? You're damn right it is! Matt was a mercenary because he was trying to pay for his sister's cancer treatment. At twelve years old, he went out and risked his life for her! I bet you didn't know that!"

They were silent for a moment, but Claire was on a pent up rage induced roll, she was gonna make them see why he's such a great guy. "I bet you didn't know that when he barely knew me, he pushed me out of the way of a kere's claw and got scratched instead. That's a death warrent! The same day, he almost broke his friend's neck because he hurt me. Did you know that what he did, the acts that he committed, drove him halfway insane? Did you know that he traveled to the zombie infested west U.S. to get me back. He's the reason why I'm standing here. He brought me back to you. Then when the world turned back to normal, he came all the way from Nevada to Long island to spend the summer with me, _every summer_. We were just friends and he did this! He saved me from a hydra and he NEVER gets angry! There's never a time where he isn't gentle and nice and... and so much more than I will ever deserve!"

"You deserve the best," her stepfather said sharply. "Has he made you think otherwise?"

"For the love of Hermes, no! He treats me like a damned queen! He tells me I'm perfect and beautiful, and how he's so lucky to have me. He told me one time that he didn't know how I could even look at him because I was too good for him. He told me that he knows that a guy is going to come along and sweep me off my feet."

Her mother shook her head, "If he feels as strongly as he claims-"

"It isn't a claim," Claire growled. "Matt has been my boyfriend for months and I've never been happier. And now thanks to you, he probably thinks I'm going to dump him for that dolt that you called a respectable boy!"

Without saying another word, she walked out the room and when she got to the door, she was sure to slam it shut as hard as she could.

**JAMES:**

It was a long drive, but James swore it took forever. It felt like years. He pulled into the familiar yard, looking around at the numerous trees that were blocking the small brick home from view. Leaves littered the ground and old bits of trash were everywhere. The bricks on the house were a very dirty red, almost as if it was dying itself.

Turning off the car, he opened the door and stepped out. Before doing anything else, he took his pocket knife out and flipped the blade out, within a second, Voltage was in his hands. He looked around, making sure there was nothing threatening that he had overlooked as he was driving in. Noting that the coast was clear, he lowered his sword, but made no move to put it away as he slowly made his way to the porch.

Not wanting to barge in on her and startle the probably disoriented daughter of Poseidon, he rapped his knuckles against the door. He waited a few minutes, but did not hear footsteps of any kind from inside the house. He frowned and tried knocking again. He still got no answer.

Sighing in exasperation, he tried the knob. It was unlocked. He opened it slowly and walked inside. There were no torches lit up and everything was deathly quiet. In the dark room, he saw two sofas facing each other. One was red leather and it was facing the door the other one was black and facing the opposite wall. The walls were adorned with homey decorations and a few posters that James imagined Seph had put up in an attempt to bring some comfort to her disastrous situation.

As James looked around, he could tell that she'd been there recently, there was a blanket messily hanging on the couch, and he saw that the back bedroom door was open. Curiously, he walked down the hallway and through the open doorway. He saw a few pictures pinned up to the wall. Walking over, he saw that there was one of Skylar and Seph shoulder to shoulder, covered in white powder, and smiling wide smiles. Another was of Will grinning at the archery range standing beside a target that had S.R. written on it in arrows. Next to it was one of McKenna and Seph in the old sword arena in full body armor both were caught in mid laugh. A picture of Zach was next, he was standing next to McKenna, both had devious smirks on their faces as they were exiting the Hermes cabin.

Two more pictures were left, both had him and Seph in them. The first was of him and her on a pegesus she had her arm wrapped around him so tightly that it was obvious and both were smiling. The next was of him hugging her and picking her up and spinning her around.

He managed a smile. He didn't even realize that she still had the pictures. He wanted to ask her about them, but where was she? He briefly thought about going to Manhattan to look for her, but he didn't know where to begin. Deciding to wait for an hour or so before going out to look, he walked back out to the living room and sat on the couch that was facing the door, praying that she would come back soon so he didn't have to worry for too long.

**SKYLAR:**

She and Will were inside of the jail house, but they had been kicked out of the interrogation room because Will tried to strangle the scout after her made a snide remark about Skylar's appearance. Skylar sat on a metal chair idly tapping her foot while Will stood beside her fuming. "Sweetheart," Skylar said breezily, "calm down."

"Calm down," Will said irritably. "The man practically called you a hag, and you want me to calm down?"

Skylar rolled her eyes and sighed. "Do I look like a hag to you?"

"What kind of question is that?" Will demanded, whirling around to look at her incredulously.

"My kind," Skylar responded dryly. "Now are you going to answer it, or are you going to just stand there gaping at me?"

"No, Skylar," Will said, sounding thoroughly annoyed, which matched the look on his face perfectly. "You don't look anything like a hag."

"That's all that matters," she shrugged.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

They sat in a companiable silence for the next half hour or so as the interrogation went on. Finally one of the leading officials, Mr. Cooper, came walking out. He wore a grim smile and said, "You need to keep that temper of yours in check, Mr. Solace."

She saw Will rub the back his neck guiltily and Skylar decided to speak up for him. "Normally he's cool and collected. I don't know what happened..."

Mr. Cooper ran a hand through his graying hair and sighed. "That temper might help you out soon if you're interested in a quest."

"What kind of quest?" Skylar questioned.

"He tells us that there is a training facility here," he handed her a crumpled sheet of paper. "Turns out that the guy's a mercenary that was forced into service, not unlike what Matt told me of Oliver."

Skylar opened the paper and looked at the words with something close to amusement. "Percy told Seph and me all about this place."

"Where?" Will asked.

"Triple G Ranch."

Skylar listened as Will laughed humorlessly. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"Afraid not," she replied half smile grimly.

The doors slammed open as Chiron and a tall girl with brown hair and brown eyes came into the room. "I do believe that a quest is in order," the aging centaur said gravely.

"Word gets around fast," Skylar observed.

No," the girl said, as she brushed some hair off her tanned face. Her brown eyes looked at them with some worry as she continued speaking. "Rachel had a prophecy made and it doesn't sound promising."

Skylar looked at Chiron and asked, "Why do I get the feeling that Will and I are involved?"

"Don't forget Abby over here," Chiron said as he gestured to her.

Skylar leaned forward from where she was sitting and looked at the two of them. "What's the prophecy say?"

"_The sun, the thief, and the hammer shall go south_

_And see destruction from the great river's mouth._

_The camp will go up in flames_

_And two shall go down under where Melinoe reigns._

_To fight the final battle under earth_

_Before Gaea's most monstrous son is given rebirth_"

Skylar felt herself grow colder as she listened to the prophecy. "You can't be serious! Besides, how do you know its us?"

"Its a hunch, my dear," Chiron said. "I've learned to go with them over the years."

She didn't respond. As much as she wanted to say that it wasn't her, she wasn't a fool. Besides, the prophecy had a final sound to it, Skylar figured Seph would be there, and she wasn't going to miss the end of the prophecy that she had been so close to if she could help it.

"When do we move out?" Will questioned, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"As soon as possible," Chiron responded. "Skylar Rocaine, daughter of Hermes, Will Solace son of Apollo, this is your new companion, Abby Thompson, daughter of Vulcan."

**OLIVER:**

He didn't know what to do with himself as he sat up in his "office." He was sitting in a chair groggily as he looked around at the four lifeless grey walls that surrounded him. His head pounded slightly as light from the outside hall rushed in. He squinted and looked up as he saw Valerie, daughter of Hecate walk in.

He hadn't seen Valerie since he'd been rescued from the Tyrants army months and months ago. Oliver tensed up, not sure what was going on. He placed his hand subtly at his side so that his dagger was in easy reach, wanting to be able to get to it in case he needed to.

"Elizabeth has requested that you be informed that she will be on her way from the underworld soom," she said in a self important tone, sending him a small wink.

Oliver blinked and saw that she slouched slightly as she walked out of the room. "Valerie!" Oliver called after her.

She spun around, a hopeful spark to her eyes. "Yes?"

"What's the date?" Oliver questioned.

She frowned again and glared slightly. "October twenty first," she snapped before slamming the door shut.

Oliver didn't even notice her sour attitude. He was too busy suffering from a mini mental breakdown. How in the name of the gods was it October 21st when it was four days from Christmas? As he looked around the room he couldn't deny where he was, the bland decoration was familiar enough. His only thought was, _was I dreaming that whole time?_ He knew what the gods were capable of, but his memories were so sharp, there was no way it was a dream. And if it was, his whole outlook on everything did a 180. _I've gotta get outta here._

He immediately walked outside and looked at a guard that was standing beside the grey hallway wall. "Jeffry," he said, hoping his voice had the correct amount of harshness to it. "Tell Elizabeth that I'm going to retire to my quarters if she needs me. I've got a terrible headache."

The guard nodded and ran off to deliver the message. Knowing that other guards would be on the prowl, he made it look as though he was on his way to bed. As he made it outside the old throne room, he walked briskly toward the elevator, knowing that no one would question his motives.

**ELIZABETH:**

She looked at her mother wearily. The goddess of ghosts was pacing the room as she spoke. "This cannot be happening!"

The demigod was confused, and despite how powerful she was, she was still not enthused about the idea of having to stare down her insane mother, so she kept quiet.

"Do you even know what happened?" Melinoe demanded, whirling around to look at Elizabeth who just shook her head gravely as she saw against the only remaining wall of the palace of Hades.

"No, mother, I do not."

Melinoe stepped forward and said, "I can sense powerful beings in the world above, more powerful that any demigod. And if you don't remember, the Fates turned back time in favor of the gods. But we were still winning, Hades was thrown into the underworld along with Persephone," Elizabeth frowned at the name despite the obvious difference in people. "I ruled the Underworld as I do now. And we were so close to winning again!" Elizabeth blinked at her mom, wondering if she was truly off her rocker. "The fates intervened again! There're demigods out there now that actually pose a threat! They're the gods' advisors!"

"I don't see why this is a problem," Elizabeth said as she pushed herself to her feet. She looked at the pale side of her mom, able to actually see the emotion and expression. "The gods are in Tartarus."

"The advisors just as powerful as you are," Melinoe snapped. "The gods now have a weapon." She looked at Elizabeth for another second before saying, "Get an army together, we need to be ready for them."

Elizabeth nodded curtly. "Where would you like them stationed?"

"Break it into three groups," Melinoe said. "And wait. I want them to make a mistake before I move in."

Elizabeth wanted to demand where she wanted to move in and who was going to make mistakes, but she held her tongue. Melinoe was old and smart. Elizabeth had faith in her mother. She watched as Melinoe grabbed the helm of darkness out of her robe and set in on her head. "I think its time to summon a few creatures back into the underworld for right now though."

**MCKENNA:**

She looked around at the brush that was hiding her feet and calves from view. Zach was leaning against the only nearby tree, a large, and possibly dead, oak. His dark hair swayed lightly in the cold breeze and his lips were set in a straight line, not giving her any hint to the emotions that lay behind his neutral mask.

"Did we fail?" Zach finally asked, his arms crossed over his chest as if he was warding something dark, dangerous, and unpleasant off.

"I don't know," McKenna sighed. "We were both at camp... maybe it was Matt and Claire that did something. They were rounding up some of the warriors. Could they have messed up?"

"I don't know, it wouldn't surprise me though," Zach sighed, sliding down the tree to sit. He rested his forearms on his knees and looked at her with a grim smile, "We're demigods, and with us, shit happens."

McKenna nodded, knowing that it was the truth. "Come on," she said, standing up. "Let's go raid Matt's house, he'll be at Claire's and I know my coats will be in my room."

Zach nodded mutely and stood up. Both of them set off across the unruly lot, cutting the time it would take in half.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

They got to a shady part of the forest and she and Zach were separated by a thick tree. When she got to the other side, he was gone.

**I updated fast! If I get lots of reviews, I'll update even faster! Lol and how do you feel about my cliffhanger?**


	18. New Clues in a Not-So New World

**Part III: The Final Battle**

**SEPH:**

Her eyes snapped open and wave of grogginess hit her like the dirty brick walls that she was surrounded by. Not entirely sure what was going on, she frowned and attempted to sit up. It was a bad move. dizziness hit her and she just fell back down.

Groaning, she just laid there and ignored the uncomfortable, wet, and glass littered pavement that she was resting on. Tensing slightly, she sat up and looked around. Something didn't feel right. That was when it hit her: other than the pounding in her ears, there was no sound. She sat up very slowly and looked around. She was definitely in Manhattan, so why was it so silent?

Stumbling slightly, she got to her feet and made her way to the edge of the alleyway. Before she got more than two steps, she felt her neck tingle slightly. Not hesitating, she dropped to her knees, feeling shards of glass rip through her jeans and dig into her legs. She felt the air stir over her as she rolled. Coming to her feet, while blood pounded through her head, making it harder to concentrate, she looked forward and spotted a large black dog.

She cursed violently as she fumbled with her bracelet. She was still feeling dizzy and woozy, so it took longer than it should have to unclasp her weapon. The moment before her sword appeared, the hound jumped. Unsure of whatelse to do, she attempted to roll put of the way again, sadly she was a second too slow, and she cried out in pain as the dog's claw ripped into the area just under her right collar bone. She hit the ground with a thud, and groaned as her already disoriented head hit the ground with a loud crack. Her vision danced and went black for a moment before clearing up. She saw the dog jumping at her. Tsunami was on the other side of the alley and of absolutely no use. She pushed herself out of the way of the hound just in time and managed to stumble to her feet, as her hand wrapped around her sword. The hound jumped at her again. Her hand tensed and she swung the sword in an arc that couldn't miss. One slight problem: the hound's claws found their mark before she found hers. A second before her sword cut into the dog's throat, the dog cut a deep gash into her side.

She inhaled sharply as the hound wailed before disintegrating. She slumped against the wall, not even wanting to look down. Stumbling forward, and wincing from the immense pain in her side, she came to the end of the ally and she just blinked. "Oh hell..."

**JAMES:**

James was only on the couch for maybe ten minutes when he heard the sound of the doorknob turning. Immediately he stood up and his hand went into his pocket. There was no reason to though. The door opened to reveal Seph standing on the porch, breathing heavily and looking tired. She had a large cut on her chest, and her face was pale and slightly scraped, but to him she looked as good as gold.

She paused and blinked as soon as her eyes landed on him. She visibly relaxed, and a pained smile came to her face. She was breathless and sounded exhausted, "It didn't take you too long."

He took a slow step forward, unsure of how to handle her condition. She was pale, sweaty, and as he looked closer bleeding... badly. She stumbled slighty as he took another step toward her and he threw his arms out, jumping forward and catching her before she had time to fall.

She hung limply in his arms and he felt her blood dripping onto his own skin. Grimacing, he pulled her closer, and grabbed the back of her knees as he lifted her up, he looked down. His green shirt had a large dark splotch on its arm.

Needing a better place to work, he dashed into the bedroom and laid her on the bed. After removing her jacket, he was able to clearly see the gash in her side and the gash in her chest.

He got up and looked around. There was a large white box with a red sign on it shoved into the far corner of the room. Wasting no time, he ran over and gripped the handle. As he got back over onto the pale girl's side, he opened the box and looked over the contents with a practiced eye. Praying to Apollo (despite the pointlessness of it), he began working on her.

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

He felt tired as he sat on the bed beside Seph. Her wounds weren't as bad as he'd originally thought. Something was looking out for her, or she was just lucky, because she'd been losing a lot of blood. She'd probably been close by...

His pondering process halted as he realized what had truly saved her. He shifted so that he was slightly closer to her, then he reached acrossed her body and placed a hand in her pocket. He sighed as he felt the crumpled paper beneath his fingers, he didn't take it out to read though. He would let her do that on her own.

Pulling his hand out, he slowly and gently set it on her forehead, brushing the dark hairs out of her face. She was slowly beginning to regain her color and it made James breathe a deep sigh of relief. She was cool, thank the gods she didn't have a fever.

She stirred slightly as he lightly trailed the back of his fingers down her cheek. Her hand flew up a second later and gripped his wrist. It was a weak grip, but a lot stronger than it should have been with the amount of blood that was gone. He saw her eyes flutter open a second later. They looked around the room unseeingly, but as soon as they rested on him, they seemed to come into focus.

A tired smile came to her face and she sighed quietly through her nose. James lightly ran his fingers across her cheek again as he smiled back at her.

"Hey," he said quietly. "You scared me for a moment there."

"I was worried too," she admitted in a raspy voice. "But then I saw you. You always end up saving me."

James grabbed her hand softly and squeezed it lightly. "I don't know about that," he replied quietly. "I'm not always there."

She sighed heavily and squeezed his hand. "You look exhausted."

He leaned down and pressed a small kiss to her forehead. "You look worse."

Her free hand came over and stroked his cheek softly while he was close to her. He found himself laying down and pulling her close to him. "Get some rest," he coaxed. "We need to get back to the colony tomorrow. Your mother still thinks you're dead."

She nodded mutely and rested her head on his chest. James listened to the sound of her breathing as it slowly put him to sleep. Right before he was completely gone, he heard Seph mumble his name, muttering, "Goodnight."

James replied in kind with a yawn. "Goodnight, Seph."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

When morning came, James woke up and didn't feel anything pressing against him. He forced his eyes opened tiredly, and saw that the room was still dim. He yawned before sitting up and looking around. The wall that had been decorated with pictures was bare, and Seph was nowhere to be seen. He slowly got up and walked down the dark hallway and into the living room. He saw Seph zipping up a small grey suitcase.

"You ready?" he asked as he leaned against the white wall of the hall. The surface was cold against his skin, making him miss the warmth of the bed already.

She visibly jumped as he spoke, spinning around with an alarmed expression. As soon as she saw who it was, she relaxed and sighed. "Oh, it's just you."

James raised an eyebrow. "Just me?" He pushed himself off the wall and walked toward her slowly. "How am I supposed to take that?"

She smiled as he came to stand right in front of her. He noticed, smugly, that she had to tilt her head back to look at him. "Anyway you want," she said softly.

"In that case..." James murmured letting his sentence tail off as he wrapped his arms around the small of her back, trapping her arms to her side as he did so. Leaning down slightly he paused when there was only a small gap between them, smiling slightly. "What if I take it like this?"

"I can't say I mind," she breathed sounding distracted. It caused his lips to curve even more. He saw that her eyes were only half opened, and when he loosened his grip on her slightly, she immediately pulled her arms up and he felt a hand slide up his chest and grab the back of his neck.

James was going to answer with a _I can't say I mind the way this is going either_, but when she pushed herself up on her tiptoes, and kissed him, he let the sentence die in his throat. Her lips were sweet and soft against his, and unlike everything else in the demented house, she heated him up like fire running through his veins. He'd waited a long time for this, over a year and a half, and thankfully, this time he wasn't sick.

Just when he was about to zone out from everything other than her, he heard a buzzing sound. He pulled back, ending their much too short kiss, and immediately went into soldier mode.

"Drone. Out the back, now." Seph nodded and reluctantly let him go before both of them rushed to the back of the room and to the back hallway, James almost broke his neck over a small table. Shooting a muffled curse he followed Seph, who was rushing ahead of him and his body slammed against hers as she abruptly stopped. Both of them almost toppled forward, and would have noisily fallen, which would have been bad timing because the front door was kicked open as she stopped, but James managed to regain his balance at the last minute and saved their hidden positions.

James hesitantly let go of her waist and then the back door opened. Oddly enough, it was right in front of him and he didn't realize it.

Normally dim light was blinding from the intense darkness that surrounded them. James had to squint, in order to see. They both rushed out of the door, but before they could discreetly close it and get away without alerting anyone, a guard yelled, "At the back!"

James swore openly now as they ran out into the open light of the porch, not bothering to shut the storm door. The old wood felt like it was seconds away from snapping under their weight. What would happen when the other guards came out? James decided he didn't really want to be around to find out. Looking at the back, he saw a large shed. Gripping her hand, he ran down the steps and dashed into the wildly grown, waist high grass. There were several roots and stumps toward the back, and he was cursing and tripping the whole way. He fell twice, bringing Seph down with him, but both times, they both got back up quickly and began running yet again.

When they got to the shed, James ran under, and he saw a couple of broken and old cars, along with a lawn mower that was covered in dust and cobwebs. There was no grass to hide under due to the lack of sunlight, and the back of the shed was just a huge field of long grass.

Looking back around, he saw that the soldiers were coming out of the house and he cursed under his breath. Grabbing Seph's wrist, he wrenched her behind a dusty white Ford Explorer and muttered, "We're gonna have to fight our way out."

He looked down and saw that she was looking at him with grim determination.

"You're not fighting," he said quietly. "There's five Tyrants. I'll take care of them, when I have them distracted, run."

"Are you crazy!" Seph demanded severely, her voice was hoarse and it sounded even worse because she was talking quietly.

James didn't respond as he looked out of the translucent window and saw that the soldiers were almost to the shed.

"They're not here anymore, Sherman," one voice said, sounding severely annoyed.

"Did you see those pictures inside?" the sound of Sherman, son of Ares rumbled through the interior of the shed as the group entered. "One of those meddlesome demigods are here! Elizabeth wants them all dead... except for that Tempest guy." James felt sick at the thought.

"What is she gonna do?" a new voice asked, this one was a high pitched feminine one. "Send him to that prisoner colony in Colorado?"

"It isn't a prisoner colony," the first voice said. "...yet."

"Look," James muttered too low for them to hear. "Get out of here. I've got a plan."

Seph looked up at him disbelievingly and James sighed before saying, "You can't be in here, go!"

It was too late, he heard the sound of boots thudding and there was a Tyrant in front of him. James didn't hesitate. He sprang forward and grabbed the guys wrist. He snatched it backward and heard a snapping sound. Snatching the sword from the ground, he swung it in a deadly arc toward the other four rushing soldiers, causing them to halt in their tracks. He let the blade go and it crashed into the metal wall of the shed with a loud bang. He planted his foot into the back of the guy he'd attacked, hurtling him toward his startled comrades. He jumped forward and he saw Seph come up beside him, and as James dodged a sword slash, she brought a dagger out and slashed it forward, causing the guy to drop his weapon. Not wanting to kill the demigods, James grabbed the boy and felt an alien surge of energy coarse through him. He gasped slightly as the boy began shuddering violently, almost as though he was having a seizure. James snatched his hand back and saw the boy crumple to the ground, unconscious. He looked down at his hand and saw electric sparks coming off his palm.

He didn't have anymore time to ponder it. He almost got a new haircut, but he managed to duck just in time. James responded by turning, still crouched, and using his momentum to propel one foot up and it connected to his assailant's chest, knocking him backward. He stood straight up gracefully and didn't miss a step as a spear came at him. He jumped to the side and let loose curse as he felt the tip and side of the sharp head graze his side. The pain was sharp for a moment but dulled almost immediately, allowing him to ignore it.

He grabbed the shaft of the spear with one hand and spun slightly, so that he had momentum when he grabbed it with the other hand as well. It took one good yank to pull his opponent off balance. They went tumbling to the ground and James grabbed the spear and spun it so that the blunt end was the one that he was using. Seph was fighting with the last guy, but he could tell that her injuries were still taking a toll on her. He felt the surge of power through his limbs again and he saw electricity crackling to life on his newly aquired spear. He swung it around like a bat, and hit him as hard as he could. The boy flew sideways because of the jolt of the electricity and hit the side of the shed.

Everything went quiet other than the groans of the only conscious person left in the shed: the guy who's wrist James broke. He looked and saw a small line of blood coming from Seph's cheek and knew that she'd been cut. The thought angered him. He stalked over and grabbed the boy by the collar and pulled him up. His anger caused more electricity to come forth, but he forced it back and looked into the guy's terrified eyes. "I want answers. Now."

"Ab-about what?" he stammered.

"What is this prisoner colony?" he growled.

"A colony that Gaea is gonna end up putting all of the people that are against her in!" he squeaked hurriedly.

James let go of him and stood back up. He walked over and grabbed the spear and walked back over to him. Before be could say anything, James brought the shaft down on his head, ensuring that he'd wake up with a killer headache in a few hours.

"We don't need to be here when they wake up," James snapped at Seph. He looked over to see that she was looking at him... gawking really. He saw something flash in her eyes as he took a step toward her. Fear. "What?"

"Y-you..." she managed to say. "Your eyes and... you."

"What are you talking about?" James demanded before looking down and seeing electricity crackling off his skin and clothes.

James felt himself calming down, and his breathing was returning back to normal, and as it did, the electricity seemed to calm down on him and he went back to normal. "That's never happened before," he murmured.

He looked back at Seph, who made no move to come toward him. "You look normal again," she breathed.

James took a step forward and she flinched slightly. "Are you afraid?" he murmured.

She shook her head, but he saw the way she wouldn't meet his eyes. He heard the sound of thundering outside and figured that the lack of rain wasn't going to last much longer and they needed to get a move on. But he wasn't going anywhere with Seph afraid of him. He stepped backward and his back thumped against the metal wall. It was biting cold, even through his jacket, as he slid down it and sat on the ground.

"Have I ever hurt you?" James asked as he looked up at her. His his legs were pulled up slightly and his forearms were resting on them as he crossed them together and leaned forward so that only the lower part of his back was hitting the icy surface.

Seph stood in her spot for a moment before slowly shaking her head. "No."

"And I won't," James said calmly.

"How the hell did you do that?" she demanded. Confusion and, for some reason, anger was laced in her tone.

"I can explain everything," James said. He stood up and walked toward her, noting how uneasy she looked as he got closer.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly. She stiffened and James pushed back on her slightly so that she was leaning against the explorer. "Get a grip," he growled. "Did you hear me? I'm not gonna hurt you!"

She didn't meet his eyes, so he leaned down and got as close as be could, there noses were almost touching, and she finally looked at him. He felt her tense up from underneath him, shaking slight as if she expected to get shocked too. Not sure whatelse to do, he just looked at her. She blinked and seemed to relax. "I'm sorry," she said shakily. "I... I just..."

"Shh," James said, pulling her off the car and into a hug. "We need to go."

Seph nodded into his chest and said, "Are you still gonna explain everything?"

"Of course," James said. "Later."

"Then let's get out of here," Seph said.

James took that as a signal to let go of her, and both of them briskly walked out of the shed and back into the house.

**SEPH:**

It was empty save for a lone scrawny guard. Seph managed to smack him in the back of the neck with the back of her sword before he even saw them coming. She looked at James out of the corner of her eye as she picked up her suitcase and her pictures, which had been strewn across the wooden floor by the Tyrants. He was waiting by the door, tapping his foot, which was an annoying habit of his that Seph still hated.

She walked over and he gestured silently for them to both walk out of the front door. Before he could take a step, Seph grabbed his wrist. He turned back around and looked at her questioningly, with a raised eyebrow.

"Where are we going?" Seph asked quietly.

James blinked and looked at her questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"The colonies, James," Seph snapped impatiently. "I'm not stupid, I've known you for three years, remember? I know you better than you think! You're not going to Colorado alone."

"I'm not going to..." he trailed off at the severe look that Seph shot at him. "You need to stay safe!"

"Yeah," Seph said, cocking her head to the side as she spoke, tugging on his wrist so that he turned toward her even more. "And you need someone to watch your back."

"There are other people to do that," James informed her coldly.

"Are you saying you'd rather have someone else by your side during a fight?" Seph demanded, a dangerous edge in her voice.

"Why," he demanded, finally whirling around to look at her straight in the eyes, "Do you always do that? I mean you are forever twisting and turning what I'm saying and my actually good intentions into something terrible, warped, and selfish!"

She crossed her arms and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Do you really think I'm that terrible of a person?" he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the wall.

"No-"

"Then why are you acting this way?"

"Fine," Seph snapped. "Then tell me: how do you think I should feel when you're gone and risking your life when I'm somewhere else, safe and sound? Do you think I enjoy staying behind when you're gone? What do you think I'm doing when you're not there? I'll tell you what I'm doing: I'm worrying!"

Seph had a flashback to the last time they were stuck in the post apocalyptic world and the large argument that they'd had when both had insisted on going into Manhattan. "Please," Seph said desperately "Don't make us fight about this again."

James eyed her with something akin to exasperation before sighing. "Fine."

Seph smiled and went to walk around him and into the car, but he caught her by the shoulder before she could. She paused and turned around, her breath caught in her throat as she realized that his eyes had changed again. They had turned from the vibrant blue to a stormy grey: the same color as thunderheads. She gulped as they flickered a golden yellow, almost as if lightning was flickering inside of him. "Please don't get yourself hurt."

_**~THEFINALBATTLE~**_

**MATT:**

As he made it to his house, he room the stairs up to his porch two at a time and instantly entered the door. As soon as he entered he looked around and with a strange feeling of familiarity, he realized that everything was just like it was before. The living room was small and the furniture, which consisted of two chairs and a couch, was cozy. The walls were an off white color and he was pretty sure that it was probably low living standard in the normal world, but now it was perfect.

He walked to the door that was on the other side of the room, slightly ajar. As he slowly walked in, he saw his chest, which was glowing slightly as if to add emphasis on what he was supposed to be looking at. He moved over to the chest and dropped to his knees slowly as he lifted the lid up. Sitting on the top of all of his neatly folded clothes were a small black box and two notes. He picked one of the notes up and it said. 'You know what's in the box, Matt. You have my blessing, so what are you waiting for?'

Matt sighed as he muttered to himself, "Her parents not to despise me."

He was about to look at the next letter when someone spoke up from behind him. "You know its not a good sign when you start talking to yourself."

Matt stowed the box and note inside of his pocket under his cloak before turning around to look at her. He managed a smile as he saw Claire standing in the doorway, leaning against the wall. She grinned at him, but something was off about it. Her eyes weren't as bright as they should have been.

"Yeah," Matt agreed. "Guess I'm feeling a bit unhinged right now."

"I'm sorry, by the way," she said looking down at the ground. He noticed her arms were crossed and her hands were rubbing up and down on her arms nervously. "My parents were way out of line earlier and I know you were uncomfortable-"

So that was what was bothering her. "I'm not angry," Matt cut her off. "You didn't do anything anyway "

"I must have given them a reason for hating you!" she snapped irritably.

"Calm down," Matt coaxed. "I did, not you."

"No you didn't," Claire protested. "What could you have possibly done?"

"Don't worry about-"

"Don't tell me not to worry, Matthew Andrews!" Claire snapped.

Matt held his hands up in surrender. "Fine, I won't."

"And you're not answering me because you didn't do anything," Claire sighed. "For once, just for once! Could you get angry? It isn't as though I would've blamed you!"

"But I'm really not upset," Matt protested.

"I call bullshit," Claire exclaimed, her hands resting on her hips.

"There isn't any for you to call," Matt said calmly. He walked over to the doorway and placed his hands on her shoulders gently. "I'm far from upset."

"My mother suggested I dump you for Lenny," Claire informed him dryly, making the reassuring smile that he'd plastered on his face become slightly harder to keep up. "You're not pissed off in the least by that?"

"I know that you're not going to," he replied calmly, shrugging his shoulders. "Should I be worried?"

Claire shook her head silently.

"Good," Matt said calmly, leaning down and placing a chaste kiss on her lips. "Now that we have that taken care of..." he held out the note he hadn't been able to examine. "This is the reason that I left you're house so suddenly. I'm sorry if you thought that I was mad at you."

Without a word, she snatched the note out of his hand and unfolded it. She was faster than him, just like a daughter of should be, so Matt didn't even bother trying to get it back. He just prayed that it wasn't personal like the one that was weighing heavily in his pocket just like the box.

"Where do you think we're supposed to go?" Claire questioned, looking up at him with a puzzled look that Matt thought was adorable on her.

"What are you talking about?" Matt questioned distractedly.

"The note..." Claire said slowly. "It said-"

"Oh," Matt said. "I haven't had the chance to read it."

Claire mutely handed him the paper and Matt read it with some troubles with his dyslexia.

'_Hello, dearies,_

_It's Aphrodite here! My note shows up at the most romantically charged place. Which happens to be in this village. Make sure you've chosen the right spot to make the romance happen!'_

Matt was silent as he debated on what to say. Finally he settled for saying a half truth. "I have no idea what she means by that..." He had an idea, he was just hoping that he was wrong. Unconsciously, his hand went into his pocket and grabbed the small box in his much larger hand and rubbed it slightly, almost as if his subconsciousness was afraid it was gone.

"We need to get back to Alice," Matt said after a moment of both of them silent pondering.

He saw a smile come slowly to her lips as he spoke. She nodded and reached out. He felt her soft hand in his and he was being led down his hallway and to the door.

**Hey, peoples! Hope you liked the chapter! Review before you leave!**


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